Luo-speaking Tanzanian President Joseph Magufuli. | image source: AFP |
Tanzanian President Joseph Magufuli never ceases to amaze.
Magufuli was elected to the position in October last year following a tightly-contested election in the nation's history and he wasted no time to get down to business.
Within weeks of his presidency, he had fired heads of some key government institutions after he found out that they were not doing their work following impromptu visits to their places of work.
With that, he managed to set an example to others who had been resting on their laurels and as result a lot of people started to take their work seriously.
He also instituted some cost-cutting measures which saw him reduce budget allocated to execute some government operations as well as parties.
Though he earned plaudits for the changes he was initiating, an impression that he was a dull person had already been created.
Well that was until recently when he hosted Presidents from the East African region in Arusha where the 17th Ordinary East African Community Heads of State Summit.
During the summit, Magufuli surprised many on one occasion when he showed fluency in three local East African languages which are not natives to Tanzanians.
He spoke in Kinyarwanda, Luo and Baganda.
A video of him speaking to President Uhuru Kenyatta in Luo has generated huge buzz and excitement in the Kenyan blogosphere.
In the clip, Magufuli is heard telling Uhuru, "Kenyatta, of course his language (Kikuyu) is very difficult a little bit but I can speak Luo."
After that he, greets and welcomes Uhuru to Tanzania while expressing his joy at him being full of health.
The video can be watched below.