Ex-Kenyan president Moi dies at 95

Source:AFP Published: 2020/2/4 19:49:07

Residents struggle to cross the Modogashe seasonal river after it busted its banks due to heavy rains in Wajir, northern Kenya, Apr. 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Allan Mutiso)


Former Kenyan president ­Daniel arap Moi, who ruled the country with an iron fist between 1978 and 2002, has died aged 95, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced Tuesday.

"It is with profound sadness that I announce the death of a great man of an African state," Kenyatta said in a statement.

He ordered a period of national mourning until a state funeral is held, on a date not yet announced.

The former president died "in the early morning of February 4 at Nairobi hospital in the presence of his family," Kenyatta said. 

Moi fought off rivals in a bitter contest to take the top job in 1978, succeeding Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, when he died.

The speaker of Kenya's national assembly, Justin ­Muturi said on Twitter that Moi was an "astute politician," who "­employed pragmatic nationalism to keep the country ­together for the 24 years that he led our nation."

"He will be remembered for his great efforts toward consolidating peace and tranquility within the Horn of Africa and largely the East African Region, at a very difficult time for the region and the African continent," Muturi added.

Moi was praised for keeping Kenya a relative haven of peace during a chaotic period in east Africa which saw the genocide in Rwanda and civil wars in ­Burundi and Somalia.

His later return, under significant pressure, to multiparty elections in 1992, and peaceful handover of power to opposition leader Mwai Kibaki in 2002 also won him some praise. President Kenyatta revived "Moi Day" in honor of the former president in 2017, after it was scrapped in 2010.

Posted in: AFRICA

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