Former Cabinet Minister Simeon Nyachae to be buried on Monday next week

Former Cabinet Minister Simeon Nyachae will be laid to rest at a private ceremony next week on Monday, February 15, 2021 at his home in Nyosia Village, Nyaribari Chache, Kisii County.

This is according to a statement sent to newsrooms on Wednesday by Charles Nyachae on behalf of the family and the funeral committee.

A funeral service will be held on the same day at Nyanturago Stadium starting at 9 am before the procession leaves for his home.

A service will however also be held on February 11 at the Nairobi Central SDA Church-Maxwell for family and friends starting at 10am.

Mzee Nyachae’s family issued a statement on Monday saying he died at the Nairobi Hospital after a long illness.

He was born on February 6, 1932 in Nyaribari, Kisii County to a powerful colonial chief: Musa Nyandusi.

Nyachae went to Nyanchwa Seventh-day Adventist School in 1941 and joined Kereri Intermediate School six years later.

In 1949, he was admitted to Kisii Government African School where he completed his A levels.

He then joined South Devon Technical College & Churchill College, Cambridge for his higher education.

In 1954, he was employed at his father’s chief’s camp as a district clerk and six years later posted as a District Officer in Kangundo Division.

1963 saw him appointed District Commissioner and he would later move up the ranks to Provincial Commissioner, a position he served in from 1965 to 1979.

Nyachae was then appointed as Head of Civil Service & Secretary to the Cabinet in 1979 and served in this capacity until 1987.

His political career began after that but in 1988, the Kanu Governing Council barred him from vying as MP.

It was not until 1992 that he was voted in as MP for Nyaribari Chache Constituency and it was in the same year that he was appointed as Minister of Agriculture, Livestock & Marketing.

In 1998, he was appointed as Finance Minister but quit Government a year later after being demoted to the Industry Ministry.

In 2002, he unsuccessfully vied for the Presidency under a Ford-Kenya party ticket. His major comeback was two years later when the then President Mwai Kibaki picked him as Energy Minister.

However, in 2007, he retired from active politics after losing his seat.

In 2018, he was flown to the U.K. for specialized treatment after an accident at home.

The deceased was also a business mogul with investments in the banking, agriculture, manufacturing and construction sectors across the country.

According to the Business Daily, he was among the leading shareholders of the NCBA Group alongside the Kenyatta family, Naushad Merali and the late Central Bank governor Philip Ndegwa.

He had five wives and 20 children: his first wife Esther died in August 2016 after battling a long illness.

President Uhuru Kenyatta mourned the former Cabinet Minister as an icon of Kenya’s progress through the years.

The President said the late Nyachae’s successful transition from public service to the world of business and politics was a demonstration that focus and hard work pays.

“I am deeply saddened by the passing away of Mzee Simeon Nyachae, a distinguished son of Kenya, a friend and a man whose contribution to the making of the Kenyan nation will remain with us for eternity.

“Throughout his many years of service to the nation, right from his time in the provincial administration through to his transition into business and politics, Mzee Nyachae exhibited exemplary zeal to succeed and as he exits from this world, he leaves behind a rich legacy of success,” President Kenyatta said.