NAIROBI (Halbeeg News) – Former Kenya Defense Minister, Yussuf Haji died at while receiving treatment at Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi at 5 a.m. He was aged 80 years.
He had been flown in from Turkey on Saturday where he had been since December for treatment.
A family spokesman said Haji had multiple body organ failure.
Haji was a long time administrator who served in various areas including the vast Rift valley between 1970 and 1998.
He was nominated to Parliament in 2002. And in 2007, he was elected to Parliament unopposed as Ijara MP.
Mr Haji was also the chairperson of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force.
Haji was the Minister of Defence from 2008 to 2013 during Mwai Kibaki’s administration and briefly served as the acting Minister of Internal Security and Provincial Affairs in 2012.
It was during his tenure when the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) troops were deployed to Somalia to fight Al Shabaab.
In 2014, Haji oversaw the signing of a peace agreement between communities in Wajir and Mandera counties to end the perennial clashes.
The agreement was signed by Degodia and Garre communities in the presence of National Cohesion and Integration Commission chairman Francis ole Kaparo and Haji in efforts to spearhead peace in the region.
In 2015, as he served as the chairman of the Senate National Security and Foreign Relations Committee, Haji proposed that individuals from indigenous communities be recruited in security teams to help fight against cattle rustling because of their knowledge of terrains.
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