NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 28 – Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli is expected in the country on Monday for a two-day state visit.
It will be his first visit to Kenya since taking over from Jakaya Kikwete in October last year.
Sources in government have told Capital FM News that Magufuli’s visit is anchored on the nomination of Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed’s to head the African Union.
“The Tanzanian President will be here (in Kenya) next week from Monday for two days,” a government source said, but there was no immediate statement from State House, although it is understood that the announcement will be made at the weekend ahead of Magufuli’s arrival.
Capital FM News has established that Magufuli will be affirming his country’s support for Amina besides holding bilateral talks with his host President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House Nairobi.
Magufuli has not visited Kenya since becoming Tanzania’s president in October last year when he took over from Kikwete who frequently travelled to Kenya among other countries in the region and across the world.
Magufuli, who marked his first year in office on October 25, is only known to have made two foreign trips—first to Rwanda and later Uganda.
Jenerali Ulimwengu, a political analyst in Tanzania is quoted by the Deutsche Welle saying that “Magufuli is definitely a different kind of president from the presidents we have had so far. He has distinguished himself from the other presidents because he has a more direct and frontally-driven style in which he goes out and does things directly without too much consideration for protocol and things like that.”
Magufuli campaigned to be elected with a pledge to fight corruption, which he has taken head-on, often making impromptu visits to ministries and other government departments where he has sacked several officials and ordered their investigation leading to successful prosecution
-capitalfm.co.ke
