President Uhuru Kenyatta is among the leaders expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Zambian president-elect Hakainde Hichilema.
The veteran opposition leader will be sworn in as the seventh president of Zambia Tuesday, August 24, after getting more than 2.8 million votes to President Edgar Lungu’s 1.8 million votes, achieving one of the biggest electoral wins in the country’s history
The celebration will take place at the National Heroes Stadium from 10am.
Several leaders are expected to attend the event. ODM leader Raila Odinga who is a friend to Hichilema arrived in Lusaka Monday for the event.
During a long political career that saw him fail in five previous bids to become president, Hichilema was brutalised, tear-gassed, and even detained for a traffic offence in 2017 that was deemed treasonous after his convoy failed to give way to the motorcade of the outgoing president.
But in an extraordinary reversal of his fortunes, the man once declared an enemy of the state will be sworn in as Zambia’s seventh president after defeating Lungu in their latest election duel on 12 August.
Hichilema, a 59-year old businessman contesting the presidency for the sixth time, promised democratic reforms, investor-friendly economic policies, better debt management as well as “zero tolerance” to corruption.
Zambia has established a reputation as one of Africa’s stable democracies, with regular elections and peaceful transfers of power since the founding president, the late Kenneth Kaunda, introduced multi-party democracy and subsequently accepted defeat in 1991. BY THE STAR
