The former President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, died aged 90, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced in a televised address on Friday.
Mr. Kenyatta declared a mourning period until Kibaki’s burial, with flags flying half-mast. President Kenyatta said he would be given a state funeral with full military honors. According to Kenyan media, no date has been set for the funeral.
Kibaki served as the third Kenyan President from 2002 to 2013, which ended 40 years of one-party rule since independence. His reelection in 2007-2008, sparked the violence in Kenya that left over one thousand people dead.
Under pressure from Kofi Annan, Kibaki agreed to power-sharing after the election violence of 2007-2008, which opened the pathway to the Odinga-Uhuru deal of today.
Kenya Ex-President Mwai Kibaki was the key mediator for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed on January 9, 2005, by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan.
In July 2007, he named his predecessor Daniel Arap Moi as a special peace envoy to Sudan to help facilitate a peace deal in the south.
Kibaki government pressured Sudan’s northern government and SPLM/A, led by Dr. John Garang de Mabior, to implement the agreement that ended the country’s two-decade civil war.
In 2014, Kibaki urged Inter-Government on Authority Development (IGAD) member states not to relent in finding a peaceful solution to the South Sudan conflict, which was sparked by fighting in December last year, leading to deaths and displacements of thousands.
The Ex- Kenya President has served his country since 1963 as a member of the National Assembly and served as Vice-president for ten years (1978-1988).