Rishi Sunak: Meet the new UK Prime Minister with East African roots

Rishi Sunak, is a British national but with Indian descent. At 42-years-old, he is on track to becoming the youngest British Prime Minister in the modern era.

For many celebrating his ascent to the highest political office in the United Kingdom, Sunak’s feat is worth celebrating because as a person of Indian descent, he is the first person of color to occupy Number 10 Downing Street.

But in East Africa, the big deal about his rise goes beyond being Indian to his African roots. Sunak has African roots through his Indian parents.

His father is said to have been born in Kenya and his mother in Tanzania; they migrated to the UK where he was born and where he grew before entering politics.

Kenyans on social media are celebrating Sunak not as much as they did Barack Obama in 2008, others are of the view that for all it is worth, Sunak identifies more with his Indian Hindu background that the place of birth of his parents.

Sunak’s rise to Premiership:

Rishi Sunak secured more the 100 MP backers in a leadership race of Britain’s Conservative Party on Monday as against his other contender Penny Mordaunt who withdrew after failing to meet the 100 MP threshold.

This meant that Rishi Sunak was in pole position to become the Prime Minister. Sunak is set to replace Liz Truss who resigned on Thursday October 20, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history.

Sunak will become Prime Minister on Tuesday once he is officially appointed by King Charles III and will be the first prime minister appointed by the new King following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, CNN reports.

CNN understood that the King was traveling to London from the private royal estate of Sandringham on Monday afternoon, as had always been his plan. He will have an audience with Truss on Tuesday morning before meeting with Sunak.