Rtd. Judge Daniel Aganyanya dies after suffering heart attack

Retired Judge Daniel Aganyanya died at the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu after suffering a heart attack, the family said on Friday night.

The 82-year-old is said to have developed breathing complications while at his Cheptulu home in Hamisi, Vihiga County.

“I drove him to Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu today (Friday). We had initially hoped to fly him to Aga Khan in Nairobi, where he could be treated by his doctors,” his daughter Caroline told the Daily Nation.

“On the way to Kisumu Airport, I noticed he was not okay… While on the way, I realised he was having more trouble breathing. And when we arrived at Aga Khan, he suffered a heart attack. Doctors resuscitated him but he suffered a second heart attack and died,” she added.

He had retired in February 2012 after attaining 74 years.

Two years later, the retired judge released a damning book exposing what he termed as rot in the judiciary.

The former judge, who was struck by polio at an early age, claimed that he had tried to raise the issue of corruption with more than three chief justices.

According to him, there were some powerful forces frustrating reforms in the corridors of justice.

In the book titled The Judicial Purge of 2003 That Never Was, he opined that the committee led by Justice Aaron Ringera– which implicated 23 judges and more than 200 magistrates–was not about removing corrupt judges or magistrates.

A local daily quoted him saying: “I had been in the judiciary for 29 years up to my suspension and I have never engaged myself in any wrongdoing.”

Aganyanya would later be cleared after four years and later promoted to the Court of Appeal.