On Monday, South Africas largest party voted the current Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to replace Jacob Zuma as head of the African National Congress (ANC).

Ramaphosa's rise as head of the ANC places the South African presidency at a hand's grip during the 2019 general election.

Unknown to many Kenyans, Ramaphosa enjoys a cordial business, political, and family friendship with NASA leader Raila Odinga.

It is no wonder that Odinga was one of the very first African leaders to congratulate the South African Deputy President on his new position.

"Ramaphosa’s background as democratic liberationist, trade union leader and high-level business executive, and his lifelong Pan Africanism, will also give new energy..and the restored democratic transformations that are indispensable to it," the Kenyan Opposition leader stated.

The relationship came to public attention during the 2008 Peace Talks when Kofi Annan proposed Ramaphosa as a negotiator to the political crisis that had caused violence in Kenya.

The current ANC Party Leader, was at the time a wealthy businessman known for his negotiation skills, given his background as a trade unionist.

However, when he landed in Kenya, he was humiliated and forced after out of the country after the Party of National Unity (PNU)'s negotiating team rejected him on account of his close ties with Odinga, whose ODM Party was part of the negotiations.

Incidentally, the statement from PNU was delivered by then Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula, who is now one of Odinga's closes allies and a co-principal in the NASA coalition.

If elected President, Ramaphosa will join Tanzania's John Magufuli in the list of Odinga's allies who have recently become heads of state.