FORMER KENYAN President Daniel Arap Moi, who ruled the country for 24 years, has died, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced. Moi was 95.

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

Moi was Kenya’s longest-serving president until intense pressure forced him to step down in 2002.

Moi divided opinion. Some saw him as an authoritarian ruler while others credited him for maintaining stability in the country.

“It is with profound sadness that I announce the death of a great man”

President Uhuru Kenyatta

In 2004, Mr Moi asked for forgiveness from “those he had wronged”.

President Kenyatta has declared a period of mourning, including the flying of flags at half-mast, until a state funeral is held for Mr Moi. No date has been set for the funeral.

Mr Kenyatta said the continent was “immensely blessed by the dedication” of the late president, who spent “almost his entire adult life serving Kenya and Africa”.

Moi’s legacy also included a wide expansion of higher education. It was during the Moi era that the university sector grew starting with the opening of Kenya’s second university in Eldoret, a town in the north.