Zambia’s first post-independence president Kenneth Kaunda died on Thursday, days after being admitted in hospital for a suspected pneumonia ailment.
Zambia’s main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema borke the news about Kaunda’s death when he wrote on microblogging site Twitter that the former president “passed away peacefully in Lusaka today after a short illness.”
“We have learned with deep sorrow, of the death of Zambia’s first President and our founding father, Dr Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda,” Hichilema said.
He was being treated for pneumonia at a military hospital in the capital Lusaka, his office said earlier this week.
Kaunda, who ruled Zambia from independence in 1964 to 1991, was admitted to the Maina Soko Medical Centre in Lusaka on Monday.
He was born on 28 April 1924.
JN/APA