Zambia’s 97-year-old former president Kenneth Kaunda has died.

Kaunda, the country’s founding father who ruled Zambia for 27 years from 1964, was admitted to Maina Soko military hospital in the capital Lusaka on Monday.

Kaunda, popularly known by his initials KK, was head of the main nationalist party, the left-of-centre United National Independence Party (UNIP) which led the country to freedom from British colonial rule.

The landlocked southern African country has enjoyed relative stability since its first multi-party elections in 1991 when Kaunda was defeated.