The Cooperative movement is mourning the death of an icon whose contribution in the sector will be remembered for long.
The death of Joseph Nyagah shock to many, a man who was household name, known by many far and wide. He was involved in nation building in many different ways. Born Joseph William Nthiga Nyagah, at Embu on January 6th, 1948, he was the first born son of veteran politician late Jeremiah Mwaniki.
He attended several primary schools before sitting for his Kenya Preliminary Examination (KPE) at Kiamuringa Primary School in 1963.
Just like his father, he went Alliance High School where he sat for his “O” and “A” levels between 1964 and 1969. During his years at Alliance, he studied Economics, History and Geography as his principal subjects, and English as his subsidiary subject. He served in many clubs and was also a House Captain, among many other activities. He participated in army cadet, choir, scouts, and Sunday school teaching and economics club.
He later joined the University of Nairobi in 1970 where he studied Bachelor in Economics and Political Science and graduated with an Upper Second Class Honors in 1973. Being a the brilliant student he was awarded a post graduate scholarship in Economics at Columbia University by New York based AFRIGRAD. In the same year 1974, he joined Kellogg’s School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, and Chicago, Illinois, USA where he studied a Master Degree in Management (Finance and Management) fully paid for by his employer, The First National Bank of Chicago, under its First Scholar Program; He was the first student from outside the US to be put on the special Management training program.
He was among the first Kenyans to acquire an MBA degree, as the old Colonial system emphasized Accountancy qualifications. In the years between 1966-1972, he was part of the Kenyanisation of the economy and the civil service when he worked during the school and Universities vacations.
Some of the places he worked were; Kenya Bus Service, Murdock, McRae and Smith Accountants and British American Tobacco Kenya Limited. He also worked as a banker for 10 years between 1973 and 1983. During this period, Hon Nyaga worked with The First National Bank of Chicago (part of today’s JP Morgan and Chase Bank, New York). He spent averagely six months in each department as part of his Management Trainee program.
The bank sponsored him again to attend Business School during the evenings and weekends. Working in the bank, he was involved in processing for approval by senior management, credit/loan requests from branches in Middle East and Africa region. He came back to FNBC Kenya in February, 1997, as the only Kenyan International banker in the country at the time. He was later appointed Head of Credit Department. One of his many projects was to train the Cooperative Bank of Kenya staff who were to set up the then Foreign Department.
It was during this time that he served as the Treasurer of the Kenya Institute of Banks. This was at the time when the banking exams were being localized. He was later transferred to the London Regional Office, as the Assistant Vice President in-charge of Trade Finance in Africa. This involved extensive traveling within Africa and working closely with governments and local commercial banks.
The aviation industry got an opportunity to experience his skill and knowledge when he was elected Managing Director and CEO of Kenya Airways in September 1987 to April 1991 a period that the national carrier had serious management problems including; excess staff, old and unreliable aircraft, blocked funds, politics of acquisition of aircraft and nonexistence of ICT systems. When he joined KQ, there were only 15 graduates out of a total of 4,000 members of staff and also funds were blocked which we could not convert to Kenya shillings in most of the African Countries. His main assignment was to prepare the airline for privatization.
After leaving Kenya Airways, for six years he managed some family business with interests in fl our milling and real estate. He set up a cargo airline based at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in close collaboration with Lufthansa Cargo Airline of Germany. He also joined a Houston, USA, based energy and international trading company where he served in its main board. His political career spans over two decades with him working as a Member of Parliament for Mbeere South Constituency, Embu County for ten years and as a Nominated Member of Parliament for five years. He was appointed to head several key offices as a Cabinet Minister and Assistant minister. He was minister of Information and Broadcasting, Lands and Settlements, OP Department of Personnel Management and Cooperative Development and Marketing.
He was also Assistant Minister in the ministries of Agriculture and EAC and Cooperation. During that time he also served in various senior positions within KANU and ODM at local and national level. He actively participated at the Bomas of Kenya Constitutional Conference where I was the chairman of the Eastern Province delegates.
