Who was former MP Cyrus Jirongo
Former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo has sadly passed away.
He died early Saturday morning, around 3 am, in a tragic accident on the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway.
According to a police report, the 64-year-old lost his life when his car collided with a passenger bus.
Jirongo was a well-known figure in politics, with a career that spanned several decades and a significant impact on politics, business, and public life.
Born on March 21, 1961, in what was then known as the Kenya Colony, he attended Mang’u High School from 1978 to 1981.
In the early 1990s, he rose to national prominence as the youthful leader of Youth for KANU ’92 (YK ’92), a powerful lobby group that rallied support for the then-ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) in the lead-up to the pivotal 1992 multiparty elections.
During a time when Kenya was transitioning to multiparty politics, Jirongo and his peers were viewed as dynamic and influential, closely connected to President Daniel arap Moi’s inner circle.
He first stepped into elective politics by winning the Lugari Constituency parliamentary seat in the 1997 elections.
Jirongo served as an MP from 1997 to 2002 and then again from 2007 to 2013.
Between 2002 and the end of that year, he was appointed Minister for Rural Development in President Daniel Arap Moi’s administration.
Throughout his political journey, Jirongo switched party affiliations multiple times.
After parting ways with KANU around 1999, he briefly joined forces with the unregistered United Democratic Movement, but later reconnected with KANU in subsequent elections.
In 2006, he took a bold step by founding his own party, the Kenya African Democratic Development Union (KADDU), and successfully reclaimed the Lugari seat in the 2007 elections.
At that point, his party stood out as one of the smaller opposition voices in parliament.
Jirongo also made several attempts to secure Kenya’s top leadership position.
He first showed interest in running for president back in 1998.
Years later, he participated in the 2017 presidential race under the United Democratic Party (UDP), which he continued to lead.
During the 2017 Kenyan general elections, Jirongo sought the presidency again with the United Democratic Party.
He managed to collect around 11,000 votes, which accounted for just 0.07% of the total votes cast in the elections.
On a personal note, he was well-known for having a large family and was a vocal advocate for polygamy, a viewpoint he openly defended, emphasizing that having multiple wives and children was an integral part of his life and identity.
Who was former MP Cyrus Jirongo
