Daniel arap Moi

Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was a schoolteacher from Sacho in Baringo, from the Tugen, one of the smaller communities in a country whose politics was dominated by the largest. He was nominated to the Legislative Council in 1955, was part of the Kenyan delegation to the Lancaster House conferences that negotiated independence, and founded the Kenya African Democratic Union to represent the smaller groups against KANU before the two merged.

He was vice-president for eleven years under Jomo Kenyatta, surviving repeated attempts by the men around the president to have him removed, and succeeded constitutionally when Kenyatta died in 1978. The peaceful transfer was itself notable in the Africa of that year, and he called his philosophy nyayo — footsteps, meaning he would follow Kenyatta's.

His early years brought a sharp expansion of schooling, including free milk in primary schools, the building of secondary schools across the rural areas that had none, and the growth of the district focus policy that pushed development budgets out of Nairobi. He founded the Moi University system and oversaw a large increase in university places.

He conceded multiparty politics in 1991 after domestic and international pressure, won the elections of 1992 and 1997 against a divided opposition, and then — at the end of his constitutional term in 2002 — stood down, watched his chosen successor lose, and handed power to Mwai Kibaki and the opposition. He lived another eighteen years as a private citizen and died in 2020.