Ex-Treasury chief Koinange takes last bow after illness

A former Finance permanent secretary, Mr Wilfred Koinange, has died of illness, aged 73.

The long-serving civil servant who served as chief executive of various ministries suffered stomach complications at his Loresho home in Nairobi.

A family friend, Nation Media Group chairman Wilfred Kiboro, said Dr Koinange had seen a doctor complaining about his hip and had been scheduled for more tests when he died on Monday at 5am.

“He had seen the doctor last week and he was given medication because there wasn’t anything serious.

“He was only complaining about the hip. The doctor gave him some tablets which he was on short medication as an outpatient,” he said.

Dr Koinange, who headed the Treasury between 1991 and 1993, was a career civil servants and served as PS in the ministries of Agriculture; and Research, Science and Technology.

He was caught up in the Goldenberg scandal and only recently managed to win acquittal in seven of the nine cases relating to the loss of Sh5.8 billion in the Moi era.

Before rising to PS, Dr Koinange had served as Director of Medical Services for eight years, having worked in various ranks in the ministry of Health for 14 years.

Immediate family members met on Monday to constitute a funeral committee to arrange for the funeral and burial arrangements.

His wife had suggested taking him to the hospital on Sunday when he developed complications but he preferred to wait until morning.

Happy mood

Said Mr Kiboro: “I spent last Saturday afternoon with him and he was in a happy mood. He was so happy that the cases have been bedeviling him for the last 19 years had been dismissed two weeks ago by the High Court last. He was in a celebratory mood and he was okay.”

Mr Kiboro described Dr Koinange as a scholar and a professional. “When you visit his library you will see someone who really loved books,” he said.

“Apart from his career of serving as a civil servant, he was a man who loved his family, a brilliant and a very humble person.”

Dr Koinange obtained his Medicine and Surgery degree from Makerere University in Uganda and later pursued post-graduate studies at the London University’s Institute of Chest Diseases, Brompton Hospital and Edinburgh University, where he was attached to Edinburgh City Hospital.

He was a member of the Royal College of Physicians. Born in 1939, the late Koinange received his early education in Kiambu County before moving to Mang’u High School for his secondary education.