Politician with Kenyan Roots Elected Leader of Scottish National Party

Humza Yousaf, a politician with Kenyan roots, has been elected the first minority ethnic leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

The 37-year-old will become Scotland’s first ethnic minority first minister and first Muslim to lead a major party in the United Kingdom.

Yousaf, the health secretary, narrowly defeated Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, in a contentious race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon. 

He received 48.2% of the first preference ballots cast, compared to Forbes’s 40.7% and outsider Ash Regan’s 11.11%.

“It’s hard for me to find the words just how honoured I am to be trusted by our membership to be the leader of the SNP and to be on the cusp of our party’s first minister…I also feel like the luckiest man in the world,” he said on his election.

Yousaf’s Kenyan mother and Pakistani father immigrated to the United Kingdom in the 1960s.

His mother Shaaista Bhutta, who was born into a South Asian family in Kenya, expressed her joy at her son's political excellence despite being from a minority community. 

“It’s your son. He’s campaigning every day, working very hard and you just want everything to work out. Negative stuff is always hard to take, especially when there’s a lot of mudslinging against your son,” she told STV.

“The last few months have been nerve-wracking and now everything has come together and we are so relieved and really proud of him.”