Kejembe bows out after 30-year sway over Coast politics

It has been a tough year for the Kajembe family as they have had to contend with three burials within a span of eight months, culminating with the death of the patriarch, Ramadhan Seif Kajembe, on Friday.

A stalwart of Coast politics spanning three decades, the older Kajembe, who succumbed to an undisclosed illness, was buried on Saturday under strict Covid-19 guidelines, complete with attendants donned in hazmat suits.

His demise came barely two weeks after that of his second wife Aziza, who succumbed to Covid-19, and barely six months after his first wife Zaharia also passed on. Even as the older Kajembe was being buried, the Nation established that two of his children had checked into hospitals in Mombasa.

The former legislator had been admitted to hospital late last month of an undisclosed illness, but his burial indicated that he had succumbed to Covid-19.

“He was in hospital for two and a half weeks. This was after his wife passed on,” his son-in-law and Jomvu MP Badi Twalib told the Nation.

“We are not experts and we cannot say that he had Covid-19. What I know is that he was ailing from other disease which led to his admission in hospital,” said Mr Twalib. On Saturday, Mr Kajembe was buried at the family cemetery in Kwa Shee in Jomvu, Mombasa, a  few metres from his homestead.

His body was moved from Pandya Hospital by health officials who were in full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to his home where a few leaders including Coast Regional Cooordinator John Elungata, deputy police commander Joseph Chebii, Mr Twalib and Mombasa County Assembly Majority Leader Hamisi Mwidani, who is a relative. Officials from the county health department fumigated the compound.

Only a handful of relatives conducted the burial prayers before Mr Elungata read out President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech to mourn Mr Kajembe, one of the longest serving MPs from Coast. A veteran politician who knew how to play within the murky Coast political landscape, Mr Kajembe would before each election bid farewell to fellow Coast parliamentarians, promising to welcome new ones on the block, often arguing that he wasn’t going anywhere.

And true to his word, from 1997 when he trounced former Kanu Stalwart Kennedy Kiliku for the Changamwe seat, he became synonymous with winning elections in Mombasa, emerging amongst the longest serving leaders in Coast.

“Each election year, I would bid my fellow Coast MPs goodbye because, of the 21 who had been elected, it would only be five to six of us that got re-elected. I was always one of the re-elected for three consecutive terms,” Mr Kajembe told a local TV station in an interview. Mr Kajembe, 76, started as a Kanu youth winger in the 1960s before graduating into a civic leader in Mikindani Ward for 15 years where he acted in different capacities in the Mombasa Municipal Council.

From 1997, he first won the Changamwe parliamentary seat through a Kanu ticket, which he subsequently defended in the 2002 and 2007 elections on Narc and ODM tickets respectively.

“His ability to connect with the people and his honesty is what made him to be given the chance to serve his people in Changamwe for so long,” said former Likoni MP Rashid Shakombo.

In 2013, Mr Kajembe who also served as an assistant minister for environment and natural resources, tried his luck in the senatorial race but was defeated former senator Hassan Omar.

He would make a public comeback in June 2016, when President Kenyatta appointed him as the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) board chairman, a position he served until 2019.

Mr Kajembe became a political teacher to many leaders in Mombasa who would consult him on matters of leadership.

During his tenure as KFS board chair, Mr Kajembe fought grabbers who were claiming land that belonged to the parastatal and managed to secure it.

He also saw the agency receiving its first new ferry, Mv Jambo, which was among two that were bought at Sh2 billion.