Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims Kenya (SUPKEM) has paid tribute to former chairman Kassim Mwamzandi, who died Thursday.
Council national chairman Alhajj Hassan ole Naado described his death as a blow to the council, Muslim community fraternity and Kenya at large.
Naado said that Mwamzandi's legacy is not measured in years alone but in the countless stories, lessons and memories he leaves behind.
"The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) have received the sad news of passing on of Hon. Kassim Bakari Mwamzandi, a long-time Member of Parliament for Msambweni constituency in Kwale and the second National Chairman at SUPKEM," said Naado in a statement.
Mwamzandi joined politics through the ruling party KANU those days at the age of 23 years.
He served SUPKEM as the Chair from 1979 to 1984.
Before entering politics, the former council chairman served as a clerk in the African court.
He served in the regimes of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, from 1975 where he acted as an assistant minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Energy Ministry, Water Development and then the Ministry of Public Works.
Before entering politics at 23 years old, Mwamzandi served as a clerk in the African court.
It was during his leadership that SUPKEM established a robust scholarship program in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) that has seen over 345 Kenyan students train as Doctors and Engineers in different universities in Turkey.
He will be laid to rest today in line with the Islamic traditions.
"May Allah forgive his humanly errors, reward his good deeds and admit him to Jannatul Firdaus. Amiinass, " he remarked.
Mwamzandi was a close ally of founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and his point in the Coast region.
Mwamzandi’s home town 70 kilometres South of Mombasa was Mzee Kenyatta’s chosen centre of entertainment; first at Msambweni Primary School and later at Bomani Primary School where he had his last public function on August 21, 1978, before his demise at the Mombasa State House on the morning of August 22.
