He was seen by his critics as an authoritarian ruler who held on to power for 24 years, but his allies credited him for maintaining stability in the East African state.

Daniel arap Moi served as president from 1978 to 2002

Moi stepped down in 2002 after being constitutionally barred from running for a further term.

He was the country’s second president taking over after the death of Jomo Kenyatta in 1978.

In office, he was feared and admired in equal measure, and was accused of human rights abuses. Moi introduced multi-party politics in 1991, but subsequent elections were marred by rigging.

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• Obituary: Daniel arap Moi

He was a more populist politician than Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta and his legacy was tarnished by economic stagnation and accusations of corruption.

Moi, born on 2 September 1924 into a farming family, was a close ally of Kenyatta in the run-up to Kenyan independence in 1963.

He served as home affairs minister from 1964 and in 1967 he became the country’s vice-president.

Until the introduction of multi-party politics, Moi was unopposed as president, at elections in 1983 and 1988.

President Moi, pictured in Nairobi with then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1988, appeared to dominate almost every aspect of life in Kenya

He was elected for a further two terms in 1992 and 1997 in polls that were widely regarded as rigged.

While president, he appeared to dominate almost every aspect of life, an impression aided by the state-run media.

His critics see his rule as the lost years, a time when Kenya was bedevilled by corruption, ethnic conflicts and human rights abuses.

They say he stymied economic progress by personalising the state, using government resources to award loyalists and withholding them to punish those who did not toe the line.

For example, roads and factories were seen as gifts to be given and rewards for communities if their top politicians worked with the ruling party, Kanu. This entrenched a culture of political patronage that has become part of Kenyan politics.

But defenders of Moi’s legacy point to his often-repeated line that he kept Kenya “peaceful”, while several African countries were experiencing strife.

Remembering Moi

Dickens Olewe, BBC News Online

The debate about how Kenyans will mourn Moi began long before he succumbed to his recent health problems.

The 95-year-old was loved and loathed in equal measure; his supporters will mourn him as a patriot and a consummate politician who they fondly nicknamed “professor of politics”, but others will choose to remember him as a brutal dictator.

Defenders of Moi will point to his often-repeated line that he kept Kenya “safe and peaceful”, noting that while several African countries were imploding into civil war the country remained stable.

Whichever version of Moi is favoured, the legacy of one of the last surviving independence leaders lives on as many of today’s top politicians, including President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, were protégés of the second president.

Kenya has changed a lot since Moi left office but his influence can still be felt.

Source: BBC

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One World Scholarship Programme (EWS) – Austria: The One World Scholarship Program (EMS) is aimed at students from developing countries at Austrian universities and sees itself as a contribution to peaceful coexistence with people from different regions of origin through the promotion of equality, dialogue, intercultural know-how and partnership.

The study grant scheme is a contribution to redeeming the right to education for young intellectuals who otherwise find insufficient conditions in their region of origin.

The study grant scheme, in this sense, offers an opportune compensation for ethnic, religious, social and regional discrimination as well as for isolated cases of human rights abuses.

Requirements and Conditions

1. Nationality of a Non-European developing country

2. Enrolment in an Austrian university

3. Financial need

4. Evidence of satisfactory progress in studies

5. Willingness to return to country of origin or another developing country

6. Age limit at the beginning of the scholarship (30 years – diploma/master programmes, 35 years – doctoral/PhD programmes).

Women, handicapped students, and students who have been discriminated and disadvantaged in their countries of origin for cultural, social, political and religious reasons have priority.

Grant awarding authority Information: Afro-Asian Institute (AAI) Graz (Place of study: Graz, Klagenfurt and Leoben), A-8010 Graz, Leechgasse 22, Tel: +43 316/32 44 34 58. e-mail: t.aichinger [at] aai-graz.at. www.aai-graz.at

For more information and scholarship applications, see: One World Scholarship Program for developing countries

More: Undergraduate Scholarships » Graduate Scholarships » PhD Scholarships

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The member countries are concerned that the illicit miberaks are fueling human rights abuses especially the sexual and gender based violations.

The analytical fingerprint (AFP) system developed by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BCR) and commissioned by the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region, identifies the mineral concentrate origin by comparing its mineralogical and geochemical characteristic features to samples of known provenance that are stored in a BGR reference database.

Silas Sinyigaya, the ICGLR Programme Officer for Democracy and Good Governance, says the fingerprinting center could be established in Tanzania.

He says the initiative is expected to make it extremely difficult for the mineral dealers that have ventured in an illegal trade and therefore lessen the urge to start wars which affect mainly women and children.

Successful application of the AFP method for a positive certification of mineral producers necessitates detailed and comprehensive sampling of active mining sites of the producer; geo-chemical and mineralogical data obtained from the analytical procedures.

The data has to be updated regularly and any changes in production methods should be communicated to a CTC counterpart (like changes in production sites; commissioning of concentrate upgrading equipment).

The fingerprint system is expected to reinforce the six tools for fighting illegal exploitation of natural resources which include; regional certification for gold, coltan, cassiterite and the walframite, harmonization of national legislation and domestication of the protocol on natural resources, establishing a regional database for mineral flows, whistle blowing mechanism and extractive industries initiatives.

The six tools as supposed to curtail any further trading in blood minerals that have recently fuelled conflicts especially in eastern DRC and Sudan leading to gross human rights abuses particularly sexual gender-based violence, which is currently a subject of discussion in the ongoing ICGLR special session summit in Kampala, Uganda. Militarized mining, which is part of the illicit trade, has meant massive use of forced labor, widespread violence against workers and the population in general, continued abuses of human rights, and unending war.

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She made the caution at the five day workshop  under the theme Claiming Spaces: Tactical Tools for Human Rights Defenders which attracted over 50 human rights activists including journalists and women human rights defenders from across Uganda organized by the Human Rights, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project  at Hotel Africana in kampala.

The Bill that seeks to regulate public meetings has been rejected by many organizations with claims that it violates the UN Human Rights laws.

Sekagya advised legislators to make further consultation before passing the Bill into law.

She noted that human rights abuses have been on the increase worldwide mostly-in theArab world where uprisings have taken place.

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