Sierra Leone’s Social media space has been awash with controversies in the last 12 hours as to whether or not President Bio was among the invited guest for the inauguration of new Kenyan President, William Ruto.

Ruto beat former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the August 9 elections to be declared the successor of Uhuru Kenyatta, who has completed his constitutionally-mandated two-terms in office.

President William Ruto was inaugurated at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, Nairobi on Tuesday in the presence of over 20 Heads of State from across Africa and the World including President Julius Maada Bio.

Bio had on Tuesday announced his departure for Nairobi, Kenya, to join other Presidents, Heads of State and Government, and leaders for the inauguration ceremony of newly elected Kenyan President, William Ruto.

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“President Bio, who is accompanied by ECOWAS Speaker of Parliament. Sidie Mohamed Tunis, Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Rahman Swaray and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mamadi Gobeh Kamara, will be returning on Wednesday 14 September 2022”, a statement from State House in Freetown revealed.

However, an unfortunate incident occurred when the Kenyan President forgot to introduce President Bio as one of the invited Heads of State. He also mispronounced the name of the President of Sierra Leone.

In a video shared on social media, President Ruto said that, “With a lot of apology, I have been informed that in our midst we have other friends who I did not mention. Allow me to introduce a good brother, His Excellency Julius ‘Nado Baio’, the President of Sierra Leone. Thank you very much your Excellency and you’re welcome to Kenya.”

This incident has generated controversies on social media with several pundits asking if President Bio was actually invited for the event or otherwise.

“I hope a strongly worded memo will be sent from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Kenya’s cuz you don’t treat a Head of State like that. Whether you like @PresidentBio or not he represents the people of #SierraLeone and is deserving of respect and all protocols!”, Vickie Remoe, a social commentator wrote while reacting to the incident.

“Why Bio love to embrace himself with embarrassment to the extent our nation is always on the list of unwanted records,” one user stated.

“Who is “Nada Baio”?” another user asked.

“So they didn’t invite President Bio. What an embarrassment to our nation!” One user remarked.

Was President Bio Officially Invited?

This is the one million question on the lips of many Sierra Leoneans since the unfortunate incident on Tuesday.

Following this incident, an alleged invitation letter sent from Kenyan ‘President Elect’ William Ruto to its Sierra Leonean counterpart have surfaced on social media. The letter was dated 6th September 2022.

However, Sierraloaded has been unable to verify the authenticity of this letter as it was not stamp nor publicly affirmed by any government official in Sierra Leone or Kenya.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s Premier TV Station, Citizens TV had published the names of World leaders expected Ruto’s inauguration. The list included 19 African Presidents including Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Évariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi), Felix Tshisekedi (DRC Congo), Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (Somalia) and Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan. However, Sierra Leone’s President Maada Bio’s name was conspicuously missing.

The post was published on Wednesday morning, hours after President had departed Sierra Leone for Kenya.

In the same vein, The Star, a major news platform in Kenya has on September 16th published a list of 17 presidents among leaders who will attend Ruto’s inauguration. 

The list according to Star included Dennis Nguesso (Congo), Ismail Guelleh (Djibouti), Filipe Nyusi (Mozambique), Brahim Ghail (Sahrawi Republic), Emmerson Mnangagwa (Zimbabwe), Azali Assousmani (Comoros) Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi, Abiy Ahmed (Ethiopia), Umaro Embalo (Guinea Bissau) and Waveli Ramkalawan (Seychelles), Cuban deputy prime minister Ines Maria Chapman Waugh, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (Equatorial Guinea vice president), Mahamadu Bawumia ( Ghana vice president), David Mabuza ( South Africa vice president), Sorena Sattari (Iran vice president), Yemi Osinbajo (Nigeria vice president), Malik Agar (Sudan’s transitional council) and Maja Gojkovic (Serbia deputy prime minister).

Conclusion

We cannot particularly ascertain if President Julius Maada Bio was among the African leaders invited for the inauguration of new Kenyan President, William Ruto. While a statement by the State House in Sierra Leone says the President was invited, the incident that happened at the Moi International Sports Centre and press reports in Kenya proofs otherwise.