SAN FRANCISCO, February 04, (THEWILL) – Kenya’s former President Daniel Arap Moi has died at the age of 95.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced his death, saying the nation had lost a “great man”.
Moi was Kenya’s longest-serving president. He was in office for 24 years, until intense pressure forced him to step down in 2002.
His critics saw him as an authoritarian ruler who oversaw rampant corruption, but his allies credited him for maintaining stability in the country.
In 2004, he asked for forgiveness from “those he had wronged”.
He ruled over a one-party state from 1978 until 1991, when he was forced to adopt a multi-party system of government following mass protests and diplomatic pressure from Western powers.
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He won two subsequent elections, which were marred by rigging.
Constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in office, he agreed to a peaceful transfer of power to Kenya’s third President, Mwai Kibaki, in 2002.
In office, he was feared and admired in equal measure, and was accused of human rights abuses.
He was a more populist politician than Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta and his legacy was tarnished by economic stagnation and accusations of corruption.
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