Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has mourned the death of Professor Bethwell Ogot.
Ogot was a Kenyan historian and eminent African scholar who specialised in African history, research methods and theory.
Ogot was the Chancellor of Moi University up to early 2013.
Raila said Ogot was in the category of the now increasingly rare and outnumbered internationally known, deep, independent and professional scholars who treasured academic excellence and the value of knowledge to a community and a nation.
He said that because of his scholarly work, the country has a deeper understanding of who they are as Kenyans, the road have travelled and the distance still have to cover as a people.
"In his death, Kenya, and indeed the world, has lost a treasure who will be deeply missed. His legacy will however endure in the many works of history that he leaves behind," Raila said in a statement.
"I send my thoughts and prayers to his family and friends, as our nation mourns his loss."
One of his works started by saying that "to tell the story of a past to portray an inevitable destiny is, for humankind, a need as universal as tool-making.
Ogot was educated at Ambira, Maseno School, Makerere University College, and the University of St Andrews and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
While studying in London, he served as a leader of the Kenya Students Association, where he assisted the Kenya nationalists, notably the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga during the 1960 negotiations at the Lancaster negotiations for Kenya's independence.
Ogot commenced his university academic and research life as a lecturer at Makerere University and eventually became Chairman of the History Department of University College, Nairobi, currently the University of Nairobi (UoN).
At the UoN he founded and directed the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Institute of African Studies (IAS).
He also served as the Dean, the School of Arts and Social Sciences and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academics therein.
He was the President of the International Scientific Committee for the preparation of UNESCO's General History of Africa.
He edited Volume V of UNESCO's History of Africa and presided over the committee that oversaw the production of the entire History. He was a member of the International Commission for UNESCO's History of Humanity.
From the University of Nairobi, Ogot was appointed by President Jomo Kenyatta to serve as a member of the East African Community (EAC) Legislative Assembly, between 1975 and 1977.
He was President of the Pan African from 1977 to 1983.
Between 1978 and 1980 Ogot served at the International Louis Leakey Memorial Institute for African Pre-History (TILLMIAP), which was an integral part of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), as its first director.
He served Kenyatta University as a Professor, and the Kenya Post and Telecommunications as chairman.
He remains Professor Emeritus of Maseno University, where before being Chancellor of Moi University he had been the Director of Post-Graduate Studies.