Former Housing Minister Soita Shitanda is dead

Former Cabinet minister for Housing Soita Shitanda is dead. The former Malava MP has died at the age of 56 at the Nairobi hospital after a long illness. He was admitted at the hospital two weeks ago according to a family member.

Shitanda was serving as the chairman of the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC).

He was a New Ford Kenya member and had vied for the Kakamega Gubernatorial seat in 2013, but lost to Wycliffe Oparanya.

Shitanda represented Malava constituency since 1997, after he ousted the then Minister for Health Joshua Angatia in the General Election, vying on a Ford Kenya ticket.

He was re-elected to parliament in 2002 on the NARC ticket and served as an assistant minister in the office of the President, before he was appointed minister for housing in a cabinet reshuffle in 2005.

Shitanda was re-elected to parliament in 2007 and reappointed as housing minister.

He was among some of the politicians who failed to be nominated for lack of degrees in 2013.

Article by Amina Mbuthia