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Live long professor of Politics… Kenyan celebrate Moi’s birthday

02/09/2018
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Daniel Toroitich arap Moi born 2 September 1924 is celebrating his 94th birth and Kenyans have taken on social media to celebrated the longest-serving president

A former Kenyan politician who served as the second President of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. Through popular agitation and external pressures, he was forced to allow multiparty elections in 1991; he led his party, KANU, to victory in the 1992 and 1997 elections. Prior to becoming President, he served as the third Vice President of Kenya from 1967 to 1978.

Moi is popularly known to Kenyans as Nyayo, a Swahili word for “footsteps”, as he often said he was following in the footsteps of the first President, Jomo Kenyatta. He also earned the sobriquet “Professor of Politics” due to his long rule of 24 years, the longest in Kenyan history to date

Moi was born in Kurieng’wo village, Sacho division, Baringo County, and was raised by his mother Kimoi Chebii following the early death of his father. He is of the Tugen sub-group of the Kalenjin people. After completing his secondary education at Kapsabet High School, he attended Tambach Teachers Training College in the Keiyo District. He worked as a teacher from 1946 until 1955.

In 1955 Moi entered politics when he was elected Member of the Legislative Council for Rift Valley. He was the chosen replacement of Dr. John ole Tameno, the former representative who had had to quit due to heavy drinking and suspected connections to the freedom movement. In 1957 Moi was re-elected Member of the Legislative Council for Rift Valley. He became Minister of Education in the pre-independence government of 1960–1961.

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In 1960 he founded the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) with Ronald Ngala to challenge the Kenya African National Union (KANU) led by Jomo Kenyatta. KADU pressed for a federal constitution, while KANU was in favour of centralism. The advantage lay with the numerically stronger KANU, and the British government was finally forced to remove all provisions of a federal nature from the constitution.

When Jomo Kenyatta died on 22 August 1978, Moi became acting president. Per the Constitution, a special presidential election for the balance of Kenyatta’s term was held on 8 November, 90 days later. Moi was the sole candidate.

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Moi was constitutionally barred from running in the 2002 presidential elections. Some of his supporters floated the idea of amending the constitution to allow him to run for a third term, but Moi preferred to retire, choosing Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first President, as his successor. However, Mwai Kibaki was elected President by a two to one majority over Kenyatta, which was confirmed on 29 December 2002. Kibaki was then wheelchair bound, having narrowly escaped death in a road traffic accident on the campaign trail.

Moi handed over power in a poorly organized ceremony that had one of the largest crowds ever seen in Nairobi in attendance. The crowd was openly hostile to Moi.

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