George Musengi Saitoti, was a Kenyan politician, businessman and American- and British-trained economist, mathematician and development policy thinker.
George Saitoti was born on 3 August 1945 and brought up in Maasailand, where he spent his childhood herding cattle in line with the Masai culture, and attending school.He attended Ololua Primary School, Kajiado where he acquired his basic education in the 1950s. Between 1960 and 1963, he secured a place at Mang’u High School in Thika where he attained his high school education.
As a mathematician, Saitoti served as Head of the Mathematics Department at the University of Nairobi, pioneered the founding of the African Mathematical Union and served as its Vice-President from 1976 to 1979.
As an economist, Saitoti served as the Executive Chairman of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1990–91, and as President of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States in 1999-2000 at the crucial phase of re-negotiating the new development partnership agreement to replace the expired Lomé Convention between the ACP bloc and the European Union (EU).
Saitoti fought gallantly to clear his name in Parliament and in the courts, but although he won these battles, the political stench of the scandal would never be too far from him. On 3 February 2006, a report by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Goldenberg Affair chaired by Justice Samuel Bosire recommended that Saitoti should face criminal charges for his involvement in the scandal. Ten days later, the VP voluntarily stepped down from his ministerial position to make way for investigations into the allegations
Twelve years ago today, Kenya was thrown into mourning following news that then Internal Security minister George Saitoti and his assistant Orwa Ojode had perished in a horrific helicopter crash in Ngong.
They died alongside two pilots and two bodyguards on their way to a Harambee in Ndhiwa, Homa Bay County on the chilly Sunday morning of June 10, 2012.
On the controls were Captain Luke Oyugi and Nancy Gituanja.Three days of mourning were observed at the time by the late President Mwai Kibaki.Six people, including pilots and bodyguards, perished in the disaster; the cause is still under investigation
Mr. Saitoti had planned to run for president, having served as vice president before.While travelling to a security briefing on Sunday morning, the 66-year-old’s helicopter crashed.
Six scorched corpses were pulled out of the wreckage by a correspondent from the AFP news agency.
The postmortem results showed that all six victims had sustained serious burns and wounds from the collision when they were brought to government pathologist Johansen Odour for examination.
His death was explained practically as soon as the impact occurred. No date is associated with the knots that aren’t tied. During the investigation, one of these revealed that Saitoti’s cell phone had survived the incident.
For a month, Evans Kiprotich, a police corporal, used it without the authorities knowing. It was wound in his hands. Following his arraignment, Kiprotich was accused of handling and stealing
Kiprotich was charged of stealing and handling stolen property, and he was also fined Sh30,000 and required to appear in court.
