Zambian First and Independence leader Kenneth David Kaunda has died in a military hospital in Lusaka. Kaunda was admitted two days earlier suffering from pneumonia, at a time when Covid-19 rates have been increasing in Zambia in recent weeks.
Biography
Former Republic President Kenneth David Kaunda was born in 28th April, 1924. He served as the first president of Zambia from 1964 to 1991. Kaunda was the youngest of eight children born to an ordained Church Of Scotland missionary and teacher, an immigrant from Malawi. He was at the forefront of the struggle for independence from British Rule. He was the first President of the independent Zambia. In 1973 following tribal and inter-party violence, all political parties except United National Independence Party (UNIP) were banned through an amendment of the constitution after the signing of the Choma Declaration. At the same time, Kaunda oversaw the acquisition of majority stakes in key foreign-owned companies. The oil crisis of 1973 and a slump in export revenues put Zambia in a state of economic crisis. International pressure forced Kaunda to change the rules that had kept him in power. Multi-Party elections took place in 1991, in which Frederick Chiluba, the leader of the Movement for MultiParty Democracy, ousted Kaunda.
