Senegal’s president launched a new party Saturday, called Kiiraay, following his high-profile falling out with his erstwhile mentor and ex-prime minister, Ousmane Sonko.
Sonko leads the Pan-Africanist party Pastef, to which both men belonged and which swept President Bassirou Diomaye Faye into office in 2024.
Faye appointed Sonko prime minister immediately after becoming president, but the relationship eventually soured and culminated in Sonko’s sacking in May.
Faye unveiled the new Kiiraay party, whose name is Wolof for “protection” or “shield”, during a packed assembly of supporters in Dakar.
Hundreds of supporters who could not fit inside the hotel conference room waited outside in searing heat, carrying signs and wearing decorative scarves that said “Vive Diomaye”.
Announcing the new party, which has the slogan “Republican Patriots”, Diomaye said it was built on “republic, ethics, transparency, fraternity and work”.
– A ‘man of peace’ –
With his pan-Africanist rhetoric, Sonko won a
This post was originally published on this site.
