[PHOTOS] Security, State officials throng Lee Funeral Home after Moi's death

There was heavy security as senior government officials thronged the Lee Funeral Home on Tuesday morning where the body of former President Daniel Moi was transferred from the Nairobi Hospital.

Moi's body was received at the Lee Funeral Home some minutes after 8.00 am.

Among those who arrived first at the Lee Funeral Home included the Chief of General Mwathethe, Internal Security CS Fred Matiang'i, Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai among others.

His son Gideon had earlier told the nation that Moi died peacefully on Tuesday at 5.20 am.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday announced a period of national mourning on behalf of the passing of Moi.

In a presidential proclamation issued, Uhuru said the period of national mourning will be observed from today until the day of Moi's funeral. 

The Head of State has ordered the flag of Kenya to be flown half-mast as an expression of sorrow.

Moi came to power in 1978, upon the death of President Jomo Kenyatta, having been vice-president until then.

Diplomats said an attempted coup four years later transformed him into a tough autocrat from a cautious, insecure leader.

He succeeded in keeping Kenya relatively stable compared with many of its troubled neighbours at the time, working for regional peace.

Moi was the self-declared ‘Professor of Politics’, a fitting title for the master manipulator of people and ethnic tensions.

He turned a moribund Kanu into a formidable take-no-prisoners political machine. 

Moi the dictator presided over an era of uncompromising state control, one-party politics and human rights abuses.

Kenya, he said, was not yet ready for multiparty democracy. Eventually, however, he reluctantly yielded to Western pressure for multiparty politics, at least on paper.

After a 24-year reign, Moi left a legacy of incurable ethnicity, nepotism, corruption and an economy on its knees.

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