President Uhuru Kenyatta mourns Prof Ali Mazrui

NAIROBI: President Uhuru Kenyatta has mourned Prof Ali Mazrui, a towering academician whose intellectual contributions played a major role in shaping African scholarship.

Prof Mazrui died Monday in the US after a long illness. He was aged 81.

The President described the late Prof Mazrui as one of the greatest scholars Kenya and the continent have ever produced, saying the Professor’s brilliance raised him to the apex of scholarly distinction and  earned him respect and following among his peers globally.

“Am deeply saddened by the passing on of the professor. Indeed, death has robbed us of one of Kenya’s greatest scholars,” President Kenyatta said.

President Kenyatta said the late Prof Mazrui’s literary works, debates and relentless cultivation of a global view of Africa have helped to tell the continent’s story.

He said Prof Mazrui’s legacy and commitment to intellectual advancement will always remain etched in Kenyans’ minds, adding that his name will be remembered alongside other Kenyan and African intellectual icons who contributed immensely in the academic sphere.

To Prof Mazrui’s family, President Kenyatta said: “My thoughts and prayers are with you at this time of great sorrow and grief.”

The President prayed to God to give the bereaved family the strength and courage to bear the tragic loss.