Nairobi, March 30 -- Little-known outside Senegal, anti-establishment candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye just won the country's presidential vote, in one of the most dramatic moments of recent African politics.

On March 13, Faye was sitting in prison together with Ousmane Sonko, the more charismatic president of his banned African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (French: Patriotes africains du Senegal pour le travail, l'ethique et la fraternite, Pastef).

Faye had been Pastef's secretary-general. He had been arrested in April 2023, and Sonko in July, in what was seen as a wider plot by President Macky Sall to eliminate strong rivals from the race.

With his second term coming to an end, Sall seemed to want to wangle a th...