He quickly became critical of the newly elected Albanian President, Sali Berisha, whom he accused of authoritarianism.

[4] Keko wrote for popular daily newspaper Koha Jonë (Our Time), strongly criticizing the first post-communist government, and later became editor of the Democratic Alliance Party newspaper Aleanca (The alliance) and of the weekly cultural and artistic magazine Aks (Axis).

On 10 March 1994 Teodor Keko was assaulted by two men with brass knuckles outside his Tirana apartment and heavily injured.

[1] Keko died aged 43 in Thessaloniki, Greece where he was receiving treatment, shortly after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

The young Albanian director Eno Milkani based the script of his upcoming movie Shenjtorja ("The Saint") on Keko's Dymbëdhjetë shenjtorë, një profet dhe disa njerëz (Twelve saints, a prophet and some people).

According to Milkani, Keko's characters are "products of a hopeless society but with a nobility that blossoms only within them who have gone through a totalitarian system."

His major works list includes:[1] Prose Poetry Beside national prizes and awards (one of each was post-mortum in 2007), a street in Tirana is named after him, "Teodor Keko", since 2005.

The Prestige magazine published in Thessaloniki, Greece, has established an annual prize for the short story writers named after him since 2002.