Towering and ever smiling, Joseph Joe Nthiga Nyagah (pictured) who died aged 72 yesterday, was a testament to the rise and fall of political dynasties in Kenya.

The former Cooperative Development minister died yesterday while battling Covid-19 at the Nairobi Hospital, his family said. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta mourned Nyagah as a consummate politician whose many years of public service helped shape modern Kenya.

In a message to the family, President Kenyatta eulogised the two-term Gachoka MP as his friend of many years and an influential, approachable servant-leader whose wisdom will be missed by many.

“Joe was a great person. A friendly leader, highly experienced in public service and a very influential politician.

“What stood out the most in my many years of interaction with him was his brilliance and clarity of mind when articulating matters of public interest,” the president said.

Deputy President William Ruto eulogised him as a visionary leader.

“We have lost a selfless, bold, visionary and industrious leader who took exceptional honour in public service. Nyagah was a vocal, responsive and development-conscious leader.

“He was amiable, steadfast and a dedicated campaigner for a better, more cohesive, more inclusive and more transformed Kenya. We will miss his wise counsel and modest personality,” the DP tweeted.

The son of Independence-era politician Jeremiah Nyagah and his wife Eunice Wambere, the towering Nyagah was curiously not very well known in political and national sphere until he was appointed Managing Director and CEO of Kenya Airways in 1987, a position he held for three years and nine months. His appointment came during a painful period when the national airline was being restructured, and had cut thousands of jobs in less than a decade since the collapse of East African Airways in 1977.

Although it was his younger brother Norman who would take over the Gachoka mantle from the father immediately after he retired in 1992, it was Joe who would eventually emerge as the family icon after his election in 1997.

His younger brother relocated his political base to Kamukunji in Nairobi and Joe romped home on a Kanu ticket, earning an automatic pick into the Cabinet of President Daniel Arap Moi between 1998-2002.

It was while serving in several Cabinet dockets that Joe would capture the attention of many, even being mentioned as one of the possible Moi successors.

“He was very ambitious and earning a mention as a possible successor mellowed his heart.

“It was his ultimate dream even as the reality of its impossibility drew home with the end of Moi’s rule,” said an aide who knew the former minister throughout his political career.

Nyagah successfully defended his seat in the 2002 elections, running on the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (Narc) that brought Mwai Kibaki to the presidency.

According to friends, he was disappointed when Kibaki — keen to push the Moi government insiders out of his government — failed to appoint him to the Cabinet, giving him an assistant minister position instead.

The Cabinet position in Embu had gone to Peter Ndwiga, the Runyenjees MP who had a long history with Kibaki in the Democratic Party (DP).

But it was Joe’s humorous deliveries in Parliament as a Cabinet Minister and taunts to Opposition lawmakers that endeared him to many political opponents.

He could always be counted on to give humorous but honest answers to questions regarding his ministry that disarmed many opponents.

Political mettle

Sometimes, he would show his ruthless political mettle like when he was pitted against former Mbeere County Council chair Andrew Mbithi Musakawa for the local Kanu branch chairmanship in the dying years of the Moi presidency.

Former Mukurwe-ini MP Muhika Mutahi who was an opposition MP when Nyagah first became minister, remembers him for his aggressive nature, humorous deliveries and focused leadership when he later became the Minister for Cooperatives.

“In the cooperative movement, we are mourning a great leader,” said Mutahi who is now the chair of the Mukurwe-ini Wakulima Dairy Farmers Co-operative.

Nyagah lost his parliamentary seat to Rev Mutava Musyimi in 2007 when he run on an ODM ticket as one of the members of the party’s Pentagon.

He ran for the presidency in 2017.

Embu County described Nyagah as an elder statesman and a pillar of the community.

[Additional reporting by Muriithi Mugo]