Boris Johnson, who in 2018 was ridiculed by President of Uhuru Kenyatta as “the bicycle guy” is set to become the new British prime minister.
The former London mayor beat Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Party leadership contest to take over from Theresa May on Wednesday.
He is expected to be confirmed as prime minister on Wednesday, when his predecessor Theresa May formally tenders her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.
During May’s visit to Kenya, President Kenyatta hosted a joint press conference in Nairobi where he mocked Mr Johnson on the world stage.
The new Conservative Party leader has a history of gaffes involving Kenya and Africa, having once attacked Barack Obama saying the “part-Kenyan president” had an “ancestral dislike of the British Empire”.
On another occasion he referred to black people as “piccaninnies” and talked about “watermelon smiles”.
While still the Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson took time in visit to Kenya in 2017 to reminisce on his earliest memories of Nairobi.
Mr Johnson pointed at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre and recalled standing there as a little boy.
“I first came to Nairobi when I was a little boy and I recall standing in a tall building over there and looking at Jomo Kenyatta,” he said.
“There has been progress and extraordinary success of Kenya today. It is really rather a moving thing. But it’s also great to see that the partnership between the UK and Kenya is robust and flourishing,” he added.
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