Senegal president launches new party after split with Sonko

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye launched a new party on Saturday called Kiiraay, after a high-profile split with his former mentor and ex-prime minister, Ousmane Sonko. Sonko leads the Pan-Africanist party Pastef, the party to which both men had belonged and which helped Faye win the presidency in 2024. Faye appointed Sonko as prime minister after taking office, but their relationship soured and Faye dismissed him in May. Faye unveiled Kiiraay, a Wolof name meaning "protection" or "shield", at a packed gathering of supporters in Dakar. Hundreds of supporters who could not fit inside the hotel conference room waited outside in the heat, carrying signs and wearing scarves reading "Vive Diomaye". Faye said the party, whose slogan is "Republican Patriots", was built on "republic, ethics, transparency, fraternity and work". Some supporters said they hoped Faye could now carry out changes with less discord inside his administration. Mamo Khady Sall, a 43-year-old supporter from the Dakar suburb of Yeumbeul, described Faye as a "man of peace". Ibra Faye, a 54-year-old economist and financial engineer from Dakar, said the changes sought by supporters had not been possible under the previous party setup and that Faye could not carry out the policies he wanted. Faye said Kiiraay was the majority party in Senegal and pointed to mayors, sector leaders and other public figures at the assembly. The new party has not yet tested its support in an election. Several Pastef officials and activists have recently said they were resigning to join the presidential camp, while Yoor Yoor, a daily newspaper close to Pastef, played down the departures and described them as a few dozen high-profile resignations compared with what it called a wave of Pastef memberships. Faye's communication team said Kiiraay would hold a congress after Senegal's summer rainy season. The source said Faye owed much of his rise to Sonko, who would probably have taken the presidency himself had he not been barred from the 2024 election because of a defamation conviction. The two men later split over how Senegal should handle its large public debt and other policy issues. After Faye fired Sonko as prime minister on May 22, Sonko's allies appointed him speaker of parliament. Sonko remains the leader of Pastef, which controls 130 of the 165 seats in Senegal's single-chamber legislature. Senegal's National Assembly passed a bill in late June to reduce presidential powers, including by barring the head of state from leading a political party or coalition, but the Constitutional Council struck down the measure less than two weeks later.