Nairobi News

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

Haji died at the age of 80.

According to family members, the senator was flown to Turkey in December and returned to the country on Saturday night and admitted to the 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 home in Garissa.

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

Mr Haji 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 1998.

From 1998 to 2001, Mr Haji worked as an Assistant Minister in the Office of the President.

He subsequently acted as the Office’s 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 of Defence from 2008 to 2013 under the Grand Coalition Government of Retired President Mwai Kibaki and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

He was among the few state appointees to have served under late President Daniel Moi, retired President Mwai Kibaki and the incumbent 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 in South C Mosque and thereafter Haji’s burial will be done at the Lang’ata Muslim Cemetery.