Ruto becomes president after winning an election marked by allegations of fraud by his main challenger, Raila Odinga, dismissed by the courts, and dissensions within the Electoral Commission.

Days before his proclamation, the new president revealed that he will seek for Kenya to play a leading role in regional politics and in the search for peace in the conflicts that afflict in particular the countries of the East African continent.

Ruto will be Kenya’s fifth president since the proclamation of independence from Britain in 1963 following a protracted and turbulent war of independence led by the Mau Mau movement.

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