Zambia’s Pioneer President Kenneth Kaunda, who governed his country for 27 years and championed Africa’s struggles against apartheid is dead.
The elder statesman was receiving treatment for pneumonia at the Maina Soko Medical Centre, a military hospital in Lusaka. He died yesterday at 97.
“On behalf of the entire nation and on my own behalf, I pray that the entire Kaunda family is comforted as we mourn our first president and true African icon,” President Edgar Lungu said in a message on his Facebook page.
Authorities declared 21 days of mourning for the liberation hero, who ruled from 1964, after the southern African nation won its independence from Britain.
As leader of the first country in the region to break with its European colonial masters, Kaunda worked hard to drag other former colonies along in Zambia’s wake towards majority rule.
In 1991, he was forced to hold the first multi-party elections for 23 years, which he lost to long-time foe, trade unionist Frederick Chiluba.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday described Zambia’s independence nationalist as “one of the greatest African and world leaders of all time who loved his country and people profoundly.”
The President’s message was conveyed in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.
