Former Minister and father to politician Jimmy Wanjigi, Maina Wanjigi, is dead. Wanjigi passed on at the age of 92 years while receiving treatment at the Nairobi Hospital.
Wanjigi was pronounced dead on June 28, 2024.
However, politician and businessman Jimmy Wanjigi had not yet issued a statement on his father’s death by the time of publishing this article.
The deceased former Cabinet Minister served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for current Kamukunji Constituency for over 25 years before his retirement from politics.
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The former MP takes credit for initiating and developing the expansive and famous open-air Gikomba market in his Constituency.
Another project that he took pride in was helping to establish the Jua-kali informal business sector in Shauri Moyo.
The former politician was also a recipient of the Elder of the Golden Heart of Kenya (EGH) award which is conferred to statesmen.
Maina Wanjigi Career
During his tenure as a Minister, he held Cabinet positions ranging from Minister for Public Works, Agriculture, and Tourism.
Just before independence, Maina Wanjigi was an assistant agricultural extension officer in Nyeri District, long before joining active politics.
Maina, who was born in 1931, came to the public limelight when soon after independence, the late founding President Jomo Kenyatta appointed him.
He became the first Director of Settlement in independent Kenya, responsible for settling thousands of landless citizens.
Wanjigi would oversee the implementation of the one-million-acre settlement scheme meant to create homes for more than one million canyons whose land had been grabbed by the colonialists.
Following his entry into active politics, Maina contested in the November 1969 Kamukunji Constituency by election occasioned by the assassination of former Kenyan politician the late Tom Mboya.
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In 1970, the late Jomo Kenyatta appointed Wanjigi as assistant Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture headed by Bruce McKenzie in 1976.
Wanjigi Under President Moi
Following the death of Kenyatta, his successor former President Daniel Moi appointed Wanjigi as chairman of Kenya Airways (KQ) in 1979 having lost parliamentary seat in the same year.
When President Moi restructured his Cabinet following a snap election in 1983 in an effort to solidify his authority in view of the 1982 attempted coup, he appointed Wanjigi as Minister for Tourism and Wildlife.
At the time, the former Minister had recaptured his Kamukunji parliamentary seat in the snap elections.
During his tenure as Tourism minister, the dream to have Kenya receive 1 million tourists by 1988 was unveiled, a dream which would not happen until the year 2010.
In subsequent Cabinet reshuffles, Maina was moved to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and the Ministry of Cooperative Development.
He led the Ministry in establishing savings and credit cooperative societies across the sector and countrywide.
Notably, it was during his tenure that Cooperative bank of Kenya was launched. The former MP was then transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture where he had cut his teeth as a young professional in the 1960s.
Fallout with Moi and Retire from politics
Wanjigi was expelled from the then ruling party KANU in 1990 during the clamor for multi-party politics in the country.
Following his fall-out with President Moi, Wanjigi vied for the Kamukunji seat on a Kenya National Congress (KNC) party and lost coming forth in 1992.
Wanjigi subsequently moved to his home base of Mathira constituency in the current Nyeri County to vie for the parliamentary seat in 1997.
The hotly contested race also featured the then incumbent MP and former KANU Secretary-General Joseph Kamotho.
However, both were badly defeated with Maina bowing out of politics to focus on his business empire under the umbrella of Kwacha Group of companies, which is currently headed by his son Jimmy.
The deceased was also the chairman of the SOS Children’s Home Program in Kenya for 25 years.
Wanjigi has also held the position of Director of Carbacid Investment before exiting in 2018.
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