Garissa Senator Mohamed Yusuf Haji dies at 80

Garissa Senator Mohamed Yusuf Haji has died at the Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi where he was undergoing treatment, a family source has said.

He was aged 80 years.

According to family members, the senator was flown to Turkey in December 2020 and returned to the country on Saturday night and was admitted to the Aga Khan Hospital.

In September last year, the legislator underwent a five-hour operation at the same hospital after he slipped and dislocated his hip while at his home in Garissa.

Mr Haji was the father of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Yusuf Haji. He was also the chairperson of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force.

He joined Kenya’s provincial administration in 1960 as a district officer (DO) and rose through the ranks to become one of the country’s most powerful provincial commissioners.

He retired from the provincial administration in 1997.

Politics

From 1998 to 2001, Haji worked as an Assistant Minister in the Office of the President. He subsequently acted as the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs in 2002.

In 2002, he was nominated to Parliament and in 2007, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Ijara Constituency on a Kenya African National Union (Kanu) ticket.

He served as Cabinet minister for Defence from 2008 to 2013 under the Grand Coalition government of former President Mwai Kibaki and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

He is among the few appointees to have served under retired President Mwai Kibaki and the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta. 

At the time of his death, Mr Haji was serving his second term as the Garissa senator.

His Janazah prayers are set for Monday at 4pm at the South C Mosque and thereafter his burial will be held at the Lang'ata Muslim Cemetery.