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President William Ruto and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni were Thursday installed as Luo elders during the Piny Luo cultural festival held in Siaya.
The two graced the 3-day event set to end this Thursday.
They were installed as elders by Ker Odungi Randa.
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was also present during the installation.
Museveni in turn gifted the Luo elders pictures taken during the era of founding President Jomo Kenyatta.
While gifting them the pictures, he said he had done the same to President Ruto and Raila.
"Because I have come here and I've been gifted, I also have a gift for you. This picture was taken on June 3, 1963. This is when Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere Milton Obote, and others met in Nairobi and declared that they would form the Federation of East Africa during that year," he said.
He added:
"But after a little while, some of them started developing cold feet. That is why in 1964, Nyerere and Karume went ahead and formed Tanzania from Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Because you said there are different chapters of the Luos, I will give you more copies, five of them,.
Museveni at the same time declared support for Raila's African Union Commission chairmanship bid.
"We are supporting the candidature of Raila for the chairmanship of the African Union. He will help us do some mobilization and brainstorming. The real power is with us here. We are in charge of these states. We are the ones who can say we move and we move. For him, he can talk but the people with power are the ones in charge of these governments," he said.
Ruto also weighed in to Raila's candidature for AUC chair adding that he represents the East African region.
He said his candidature was approved by African heads of State after a meeting that resolved that he was the best fit for the role.
"Raila Odinga is not a candidate for Kenya, he is a candidate for East Africa. Before we rolled out his candidature for the African Union, we went to President Museveni as the elder of our region, we spoke to all the East African Heads of State and we confirmed that we had the right candidate with the right credentials to be able to champion, the unity, the progress and the success of Africa as a continent," he remarked.
Raila expressed gratitude to the two presidents for gracing the event saying Piny Luo was honoured to have them.
"Piny Luo Cultural Festival is today honoured to host H.E President William Ruto and H.E President Yoweri Museveni at Got Ramogi. We thank them for creating time to celebrate our culture."
