First African Mayor of Nairobi and a veteran Kenyan politician Charles Wanyoike Rubia is dead.
His lawyer Senator Irungu Kangata confirmed the news and said Rubia died on Monday at his Karen home. He was aged 96.
Rubia, a former political detainee, joined Parliament as Member of Parliament for Starehe from 1969 to 1988.
In February 1987, he was arrested and accused of importing guns to overthrow the then Moi government and was detained at Nyayo House for five days before being released without being arraigned in court.
In 1990, together with Hon. Kenneth Matiba, Rubia led the calls for multi-party democracy and was subsequently detained by President Daniel Arap Moi.
He was born in 1923 in Murang’a County.
Rubia attended various schools among them Alliance High school, the Posts and Telecommunications Training School in Tanzania and even received a British Council grant to study the British system of local government in the United Kingdom in 1959.
Messages of condolence were ushered in from various leaders across the country:
