Former Kenya Seed Company Managing Director Nathaniel Tum is dead.
According to the family, Dr Tum, 73, succumbed to blood cancer on Tuesday at Nairobi Hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for the last month.
"He has been battling the condition for some time and was under medication but we lost him this morning," his son Edwin told The Standard on the telephone.
He described his father as an industrious person who progressed from a junior officer to become the Managing Director at the seed firm.
Stakeholders and Kenya Seed Company officials led by Job Ndemo mourned Tum and said he had left a mark in the seed industry.
"We are mourning. He was our pillar," said Mr Ndemo.
Tum died while battling with the government in court over the control of the firm, a fight that has been active over the last 18 years.
After Narc took over power, the then Agriculture Minister Kipruto Kirwa fired Dr Tum and other senior managers in December 2003.
Tum and other five other former officials moved to court to seek redress over their sacking by Kirwa.
However, High Court judge Jeanne Gacheche dismissed their application challenging the dismissal.
In May 2021, Tum and his team were back in court to block the appointment of directors of the firm from taking office.
High Court judge Stephen Murugu Githinji issued an injunction restricting Kipkorir Menjo, Alice Chesire, Francis Okwara, Gitonga Kamiti and Samuel Mecca from assuming directorship following their appointment by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya in March.
Tum, and five other directors, applied for the injunction, terming the appointments by Munya as unlawful.
The case blocking directors from assuming office is coming up on March 8, 2022.
The firm's troubles started in 2001 after the management under Tum issued new shares and sold them to individuals in a transaction that diluted government stake from 52.8 per cent to 40 per cent.
