Daily Times

Kenya’s longest serving president, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, has died, the presidency in Kenya confirmed Tuesday.

“It is with profound sadness and sorrow that I announce the passing of a great African statesman, H.E. Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, the second president of the Republic of Kenya. His excellency the former president passed on at the Nairobi Hospital on the early morning of this 4th February 2020 in the presence of his family,” Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta said in a presidential proclamation.

Moi, who was 95, had been in and out of the hospital, where he was put on life support machines following recurring medical complications that were tied to his age.

Born on Sept. 2, 1924 in Kabarak village in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, he was the second president of the Republic of Kenya and rose all the way from being a cattle herder to a teacher and finally becoming the country’s leader.

He initially served as vice president under the country’s first post-independence leader, Jomo Kenyatta, before assuming the top job of the former British colony.

Since officially joining politics in 1955, Moi served as an educator, a teacher, a legislator, a member of parliament, a cabinet minister, vice president and finally as president of the Republic of Kenya.

His tenure as Kenya’s second president was plagued by corruption and nepotism.