Shock as Mungai dies in Dar after a short illness

Dar es Salaam. Joseph Mungai, a long-serving cabinet minister in the Tanzanian government died yesterday at the Muhimbili National Hospital.

MNH spokesman Aminiel Aligaesha confirmed that the body of Mungai was received at 5pm at the Emergency Department of the Hospital and was pronounced dead at 5.20pm by a doctor. “He was not our patient. He was already dead when he was brought at the hospital yesterday evening and the doctor pronounced him dead when the body was still in the car after which it was taken directly to the mortuary,” Mr Aligaesha told The Citizen in a telephone interview.

Mungai’s son, Willy, said his father started complaining of severe stomachache after which he started vomiting continuously. They rushed him to a hospital in Oysterbay where he was referred to Muhimbili.

“Apparently, he died before we got there,” he said, adding that the family was shocked as he had been of sound health.

Born in 1943 Mungai served as the MP for Mufindi for 35 years and held various cabinet positions from first phase government to the fourth phase government.

He was minister of Agriculture (1972-75 and 1980-82) under former President Julius Nyerere. In November 2000, he was appointed minister for Education and Culture by former President Benjamin Mkapa. In October 2006 to February 2008 he served as the minister for Home Affairs under Jakaya Kikwete.

He decamped to the opposition Chadema during the campaigns of the General Election last year. Mungai was a graduate of Colorado University and Harvard University with a Master of Public Administration (MPA 1980).

In February 2008 when President Kikwete made a Cabinet reshuffle Mungai was quoted as saying: “Just after the President had dissolved the cabinet, I asked him to let me retire.”

Additional Reporting by Saumu Mwalimu