Senegal's President Faye launches Kiray party, severing ties with former mentor Sonko

A new party in Dakar

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye launched his own political party on Saturday, 25 July 2026, during a conference at the King Fahd Palace hotel in Dakar. The new formation is called Kiray - Les Patriotes Républicains ("Kiray: the Republican Patriots"), with "kiray" meaning "protection" or "shield" in Wolof. Hundreds of supporters who could not fit inside the conference hall waited outside under oppressive heat, holding placards and wearing scarves reading "Vive Diomaye." Faye said the party rests on "the republic, ethics, transparency, fraternity and work."

The break with Sonko

Faye and Ousmane Sonko both belonged to the pan-Africanist Pastef party, which carried Faye to the presidency in 2024. After taking office, Faye appointed Sonko as prime minister, but relations deteriorated steadily and Faye dismissed him in May. Saturday's event makes the rupture definitive. Outside the venue, 43-year-old Mamo Khady Sall, who came with a group of 15 other women from the Dakar suburb of Yeumbeul, praised Faye as a "man of peace" and expressed such strong aversion to Sonko that she refused even to speak his name.

He is a man of peace.

A direct challenge to Pastef

Sonko had built a large following among young Senegalese with his pan-Africanist rhetoric after a power struggle with former president Macky Sall (2012–2024). Together, Faye and Sonko campaigned on economic transformation, social justice and fighting corruption. Ibra Faye, a Dakar-based economist and financial engineer, told Agence France Presse that after "these two years in power, we see that the changes demanded were not at all possible within the current framework" of Pastef.

"The majority party"

Addressing supporters, President Faye declared that "Kiray is the majority party in this country" and surrounded himself with mayors, sector officials and civil society figures. Several Pastef officials and activists had recently announced their resignations to join the presidential camp. Faye also used the speech to aim barbs at unnamed political adversaries, saying that "from now on, no warmonger will be able to disturb the peace of the Senegalese or their desire to better serve the Republic." Militants interpreted the words as a swipe at Sonko, who now serves as president of the National Assembly.

Rebuilding hope

Faye described Kiray's mission as protecting the Republic of Senegal, its institutions, and the ancestral values passed down to new generations. He told the crowd that the homeland must stand above all divisions and ambitions, adding that "one can be adversaries one day but remain brothers every day." The launch drew an overflow crowd of militants and sympathisers, some of whom followed the speech from a marquee erected on the hotel forecourt.