JUST IN: Kenya’s longest-serving president, Daniel arap Moi dies at 95

Kenya’s longest-serving president, Daniel Arap Moi, has passed on at the age of 95.

His death was announced by President Uhuru Kenya in a statement on the state broadcast today.

Moi, who ruled Kenya for 24 years, had been in the 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.

Moi was 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. At the age of 95, he was the oldest living former Kenyan president at the time of his death.