Daniel arap Moi, who ruled Kenya with iron fist for 24 years, dead at 95

Daniel arap Moi, a former schoolteacher who became Kenya’s longest-serving president and presided over years of repression and economic turmoil fuelled by runaway corruption, has died. He was 95.

Moi’s death was announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta in a statement on the state broadcaster on Tuesday.

Moi, who earned the moniker “Professor of Politics” for his 24-year-long rule of Kenya from 1978 to 2002, had been in hospital for over a month.

Despite being called a dictator by critics, Moi enjoyed strong support from many Kenyans and was seen as a uniting figure when he took power after founding President Jomo Kenyatta died in office in 1978. Some allies of the ailing Kenyatta, however, tried to change the constitution to prevent Moi, then the vice-president, from automatically taking power upon Kenyatta’s death.

So wary was Moi of any threat during that uncertain period that he fled his Rift Valley home when he heard of Kenyatta’s death, returning only after receiving assurances of his safety.

In 1982 Moi’s government pushed through parliament a constitutional amendment that made Kenya effectively a one-party state. Later that year the army quelled a coup attempt plotted by opposition members and some air force officers. At least 159 people were killed.