This archive report was first published on 15 May 2021.
On Saturday, May 15, 2021, President Uhuru Kenyatta arrived in Djibouti to attend the inauguration of the country's President Ismail Omar Guelleh.
President Guelleh, 73, won a fifth term in office in April 2021, despite the opposition boycotting the election over claims of electoral malpractice.
However, Guelleh's administration insisted that the polls were fair, with Guelleh securing 97% of the 177,391 votes cast.
His only challenger, businessman Zakaria Ismail Farah, received 2% of the votes.
President Guelleh's election makes him one of the longest-serving Heads of State in Africa, with a tenure spanning over two decades.
He was first elected to office in 1999, following the retirement of his predecessor Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had served the country since its independence from France in 1977.
President Guelleh's Government amended the Constitution in 2010, scrapping the two-term limit provision and introducing an age limit of 75 years for presidential candidates.
President Kenyatta was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo to the inauguration, which was also attended by other leaders, including Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Rwanda's Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente.
