Kenya's longest-serving President Daniel arap Moi dies aged 95 Tuesday Feb 04,2020

For more than a quarter of a century, Daniel arap Moi dominated Kenyan politics.

He was a more populist politician than his predecessor Jomo Kenyatta and won widespread support in the country.

But he failed to dismantle Kenyatta's dictatorial style of rule and ruthlessly suppressed political opponents.

He earned the sobriquet "professor of politics" but his legacy was tarnished by economic stagnation and accusations of corruption.

He was one of the few politicians in Kenya who belonged to neither of the main ethnic groups - Kikuyu and Luo but  a Tugen, a member of one of the smallest tribal groupings in Kenya, the Kalenjin.

In March 1957 Moi was one of the first eight black people to be elected to the Legislative Council.

Early in 1960 he was one of the African delegates to the Lancaster House conference in London, which drafted a new Kenyan constitution granting black people a majority in the Legislative Council.

In 1961 he became minister of education and, in a coalition council of ministers, formed of Kanu (Kenya African Nationalist Union) and Kadu (Kenya African Democratic Union - Moi's party), he was named minister for local government.

In Dec 1963 When Kenya finally gained independence and Kenyatta became prime minister, Moi was designated shadow minister of agriculture.

At the end of the following year, when Kenyatta became president, Moi was sworn in as minister for home affairs.

This was an important post as it made him head of Kenya's national police and charged him with the responsibility for maintaining national security.

While retaining this post, in January 1967 he was appointed Kenya's vice-president and vice-chairman of the Kanu parliamentary group.

During his period of office as home affairs minister most foreign observers agreed that Kenya had far fewer political prisoners and less internal repression than almost any other African country in the post-colonial period.

When Kenyatta died in August 1978, Moi immediately became interim president and from the outset he made it clear that he would keep the country on the same pro-Western course.

In October 1978 he was elected unanimously head of Kenya's only political party and became the country's second president.

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