APA-Windhoek (Namibia) Kenya’s President William Ruto has called on fellow African leaders to champion the transformation of the continent in honour of the values and causes promoted by late Namibian president Hage Geingob.
In a tribute delivered during a memorial service for Geingob in the Namibian capital Windhoek on Saturday, Ruto said the greatest honour that Africa should provide to the former president was to ensure the economic empowerment and political emancipation of the continent.
“Together as a continent, believing in what President Geingob believed in, we must reform our African Union (AU) so that it becomes of the epicentre of green growth,” Ruto said.
He added: “We cannot certainly be a continent defined by poverty, a continent defined by hunger and wars, but a continent of opportunity and investment.”
Ruto was one of 18 heads of state and government who joined thousands of Namibians to bid farewell to the late president.
Among the foreign dignitaries present during the official memorial service were Presidents João Lourenço (Angola), Mokgweetsi Masisi (Botswana), Felix Tshisekedi (Democratic Republic of Congo), Sahle-Work Zewde (Ethiopia), Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany), Samia Suluhu (Tanzania) and Emmerson Mnangagwa (Zimbabwe).
Others included the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Lesotho Prime Minister Samual Matekane and Presidents Filipe Nyusi (Mozambique), Évariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi) and Sauli Niinistö (Finland).
The ceremony was also attended by AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and Southern African Development Community (SADC) executive secretary Elias Magosi.
JN/APA