President Uhuru Kenyatta has sent a message of condolence to President Edgar Lungu, the Government and the people of Zambia following the death of former President Kenneth Kaunda.
Kaunda passed away on June 17,2021 aged 97. According to SABC, Kaunda died in Zambia’s capital Lusaka after being hospitalized for a few days.
“On behalf of the Government and the People of Kenya and on my own behalf, I wish to convey our deepest sympathies and condolences to the Government and People of Zambia on the demise of former President Kenneth Kaunda,” Uhuru said.
Uhuru eulogized Kaunda as an outstanding statesman and a Pan-Africanist who played a key role in the African continent’s liberation struggle.
“He was a great leader full of wisdom who remained actively engaged in promoting the interests of the African continent for many years after leaving office,” he said.
Uhuru said Kenya and the world will always remember and cherish his huge contribution to the welfare of the people of Zambia and Africa as a whole.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, the Government and the people of Zambia during this difficult time of grieving and loss,” Uhuru said.
The Head of State assured that Kenya stood in solidarity with the Government and the people of Zambia and prayed to God to comfort them as they mourn their departed former President.
Kaunda was being treated for pneumonia in a hospital in the capital, Lusaka,
He led Zambia into independence from Britain and went on to rule the country from 1964 to 1991.
He joined the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress in 1951 as one of the people fighting for independence from the British.
Eight years later, he broke away and founded the Zambian African National Congress, which was banned and resurfaced as the United National Independence Party, which he was the leader.
In 1991, Kaunda called for multiparty elections in Zambia after he changed the rules that kept him in power and lost to Frederick Chiluba of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy.
He attempted a political comeback in 1996, but was barred by the constitution BY THE STAR