NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 11 – A former ODM party Pentagon member Joe Nyaga and cabinet minister under President Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki is dead.
Nyaga who also served as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential advisor before quitting in 2017 to contest in the presidential election as an independent succumbed to COVID-19 on Friday, his family said.
Nyaga is the son of a former cabinet minister in founding president Jomo Kenyatta’s cabinet, Jeremiah Nyaga.
During the Grand Coalition Government following contested 2007 polls, President Kibaki appointed him the minister in charge of Co-operative Development.
In his condolence message, President Kibaki mourned Nyaga as a leader who distinguished himself in championing the interests of Kenyans and, “a consummate diplomat, a proficient captain of the corporate sector, a suave political mobilizer and community leader.”
“As my Minister for Cooperatives, Joe distinguished himself as a champion of the interests of wananchi by nurturing Kenya’s Sacco movement and propelling it several notches higher. During his tenure at the Ministry, Kenya’s Sacco movement grew into one of the largest in the continent peaking at 10.1 million subscribers in 2010,” the former president stated in a message dispatched by his Private Secretary Ngari Gituku.
“The Cooperative Bank of Kenya went public and was listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange in 2008 courtesy of Joe’s focused leadership,” he added.
