Kenya mourns Moi with state funeral

NAIROBI: Thousands of Kenyans on Tuesday gathered to mourn the country´s longest-serving leader, the hardline Daniel arap Moi, as a week of mourning climaxed with a state funeral.

Moi, whose 24-year rule saw Kenya become a one-party state where critical voices were ruthlessly crushed, died on February 4 aged 95. Mourners began gathering at a national athletics stadium before dawn to pay their respects.

Moi, who towered over Kenya between 1978 and 2002, lay in state for three days in parliament, with tens of thousands of people filing past. On Tuesday morning, he was taken on a gun carriage draped in Kenya´s flag through the streets of Nairobi to the crowded Nyayo national stadium flanked by soldiers.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who opened the memorial with the national anthem, called Moi "a champion of Pan-Africanism."

The cortege entered the stadium flanked by long lines of red-coated soldiers and a brass band playing marching tunes and Christian hymns, their boots glinting in the bright sun. "The Last Salute", Citizen TV wrote. "Fare thee well, 1924-2020" national broadcaster KBC headlined.

Former opponent Raila Odinga, who was jailed for several years under Moi, called the late leader a "greater fighter" but who had eventually accepted multiparty politics. "I was one of the victims... but he was also forgiving, like I am also forgiving, and we made our peace, and we shook hands, and then worked together," Odinga said. "We remember the good things that he did," he added.

Those targeted by his regime included human rights and environmental activists, including the writer Ngugi wa Thiong´o and the future Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.