Uhuru Kenyatta says queen was 'a towering icon of selfless service'
Outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta
What you need to know:
Elizabeth, then a princess, was on a visit to Kenya in February 1952 when she received news of her father's death while staying at the Treetops hotel, a remote game-watching lodge in the Aberdare forest.
Queen Elizabeth was "a towering icon of selfless service", Kenya's outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta said Friday, in a statement expressing his "deep sense of loss" at her death aged 96.
"Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a towering icon of selfless service to humanity and a key figurehead of not only the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations where Kenya is a distinguished member but the entire world," he said.
Kenyatta said he "received the sad news... with great sorrow and a deep sense of loss", noting the former British colony's close ties with the queen.
Elizabeth, then a princess, was on a visit to Kenya in February 1952 when she received news of her father's death while staying at the Treetops hotel, a remote game-watching lodge in the Aberdare forest.
Kenya was the first stop on the tour of the Commonwealth she had embarked on with her husband, Prince Philip, in place of her ill father.
It was during their night at the Treetops hotel that Elizabeth would become queen, an episode immortalised in the popular TV series "The Crown".
The royal visit -- and the legend to go with it -- made Treetops among the most famous hotels in the world.
Two decades after Kenya declared independence from Britain in 1963, the queen returned to the country on the invitation of then president Daniel arap Moi.
Kenya's president-elect William Ruto also paid tribute to the queen late Thursday, hailing her "admirable" leadership of the Commonwealth.
"May her memories continue to inspire us. We join the Commonwealth in mourning and offer our condolences to the Royal Family and the United Kingdom," said Ruto.
"She steered the institution's evolution into a forum for effective multilateral engagement," Ruto said on Twitter, describing the bloc as a testament to the queen's "historic legacy".
The Commonwealth's membership has expanded to include nations with no historic ties to Britain, with Rwanda joining in 2009.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame condoled the queen's passing and said "the modern Commonwealth is her legacy."
The British government this year struck a much-criticised deal to deport asylum-seekers from the UK to Rwanda, with Charles -- now king and the head of the Commonwealth -- reportedly opposed to the scheme.
