Watch Banter Showdown Between Ruto, Samia Suluhu & Larry Madowo [VIDEO]

The Africa Food Systems Summit in Tanzania saw a light moment created out of the blue as President William Ruto, his Tanzanian counterpart Samia Suluhu and CNN journalist Larry Madowo engaged each other in banter that captivated the audiences.

While addressing the delegates on Thursday, September 7, Samia began by teasing Ruto regarding his little Swahili lesson that he gave delegates who were attending the Africa Climate Summit in Kenya.

While correcting him, Suluhu argued that Ruto's use of 'jambo' to greet the over 16,000 delegates who were in attendance was inaccurate according to Swahili linguistics, and the correct salutation should have been 'habari za mchana.'

"The other day Ruto taught us to say jambo and we responded with jambo but the real thing should be habari za mchana. These Kenyans should be taken through lessons of Kiswahili," Suluhu stated.

President Suluhu went on to highlight some linguistic errors between Kenya and Tanzania, noting how at times Kenyans called the signing of an agreement as 'kutilia kidole mkataba,' whereas the correct phrase is 'kutia saini mkataba.'

Madowo then seized the opportunity to add humour to the exchange, coming to President Ruto's defence stating that while Kenyans may struggle with speaking proper Swahili, Tanzanians have similar challenges when it comes to speaking English.

"I must defend my President. Kenya and Tanzania are very close neighbours. As Kenyans speak to them in poor Swahili, they (Tanzanians) respond to us in broken English and we just move on," he stated.

President Ruto then came to Madowo's aid in lightening the mood, though he rectified the popular journalist's sentiments by stating that his Swahili was classes above Madowo's.

"Let me help Larry. My Swahili is better than his. What he meant to say was that you (Tanzanians) speak to us in proper Swahili and we respond in proper English," the Head of State responded in defence.

To make matters better, Ruto chimed in with his teaser to Suluhu regarding her repetitive use of the word 'Azimio' which he encountered during his visit to Tanzania, amongst the pieces of vocabulary he observed that were commonplace amongst Kenya's politicians.

According to Ruto, his interpretation of Azimio was in reference to the opposition going under the name 'Azimio la Umoja' who under former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, was known for giving Ruto a difficult time close to one year after being President with their chaotic antics including anti-government protests.