Amason Kingi Jeffah EGH (born 1973[1]) is a Kenyan politician currently serving as the Speaker of the Senate of Kenya. He is a member of the Pamoja African Alliance party, which he founded, and the Kenya Kwanza alliance. He served as the first governor of Kilifi County from 2013 to 2022, having been elected twice to the position.

Amason Kingi
3rd Speaker of the Kenyan Senate
Assumed office
8 September 2022
Preceded byKenneth Lusaka
PresidentWilliam Samoei Ruto
1st Governor of Kilifi County
In office
27 March 2013 – 25 August 2022
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byGideon Mung'aro
Member of the Kenyan Parliament
In office
2008–2013
ConstituencyMagarini
Personal details
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Political partyPamoja African Alliance
Other political
affiliations
Kenya Kwanza
SpouseLiz Kingi

He formed his own party, Pamoja African Alliance which later joined the United Democratic Alliance, FORDKenya, the Amani National Congress and other small parties to form the Kenya Kwanza alliance, which was elected into government in the 2022 Kenyan general election.[2]

Career

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Kingi studied law and graduated from the University of Nairobi in 1998. As a member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), he was elected to represent the Magarini Constituency in parliament during the 2007 Kenyan parliamentary election.[3]

His growing reputation was spotted by president Mwai Kibaki and prime minister Raila Odinga, who gave him a position as Minister for the East African Community in the Grand Coalition government that was formed after the 2007 post-election violence.[4] He served as Minister for Fisheries Development from 2010 to 2013.

Kingi ran for and won the governorship of Kilifi County in 2013, and he was reelected in 2017.[5] He established the Pamoja African Alliance party in an effort to free coastal Kenya from ODM's control.[6] This party originally aligned itself with Azimio la Umoja, which supported Raila Odinga for president, but severed relations with the group in 2022 and joined Kenya Kwanza, which supported William Ruto. Kenya Kwanza and Ruto won the 2022 elections, and Kingi was elected Speaker of the Senate.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Senate of Kenya". Parline: the IPU’s Open Data Platform.
  2. ^ "Mung'aro beats Aisha Jumwa in Kilifi governor race". The Star. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  3. ^ Members Of The 10th Parliament Archived 16 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Parliament of Kenya. Accessed 19 June 2008. He was elected as the Speaker of the Senate on 8th September 2022 after garnering 46 votes in an election that was boycotted by Azimio la Umoja Senators
  4. ^ GROUP, NTV KENYA-NATION MEDIA. "NTV Kenya: Who is Amason Jeffah Kingi, the new Senate Speaker?". NTV Kenya. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  5. ^ "Hon. Amason J. Kingi, EGH – Kilifi County Government". Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  6. ^ "Pamoja African Alliance, new parties reaping big ahead of primaries". Nation. 2 April 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  7. ^ "Lets do more than our predecessors, Senate Speaker urges new Senators | The Kenyan Parliament Website". www.parliament.go.ke. Retrieved 19 January 2023.