His Office said that Netanyahu will attend an official lunch, where he will be joined by the leaders of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, Togo, Botswana, Namibia and Ethiopia, the vice-president of Nigeria and other senior officials.

Afterwards, Netanyahu is to hold bilateral meetings with several of the heads of state.

The prime minister who has pushed for Israel to expand its diplomatic ties in Africa, held a similar round round of talks with African leaders when he attended a summit in Liberia earlier this year.

In early July 2016, Netanyahu became the first Israeli premier in decades to travel to the continent when he visited four East African nations: Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

Despite allegations of vote rigging, Netanyahu congratulated Kenyatta on his “landslide victory,” in a November 2 letter.

According to local media reports about 100,000 people are expected to attend Tuesday’s inauguration, some 60,000 inside the city’s Kasarani Stadium and the rest outside. 

Kenya’s opposition is planning to stage an “alternative inauguration,” as well as acts of civil disobedience, which observers say could spark riots, given the threat to respond to the oppositions plans with “equal force of the law,” made by a government spokesperson last week.

(AN)