Kenya, like the rest of the world, particularly the Islamic world but also philanthropic organisations and the world of health and education, commemorates the figure of the Aga Khan, who died yesterday in Lisbon at the age of 88. Imam, tycoon and patron of the arts, the highest representative of the Ismaili community, his enterprises, united under the Aga Khan Development Network, employed almost 100,000 people.
In Africa, his name is linked to many development works and programmes, hospitals, universities and schools, through the foundation that bears his name.
We remember above all the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi and Mombasa and its associated clinics scattered throughout East Africa and the academy in Parklands, the Indian quarter of Nairobi, founded in 1970. It is one of the first international schools in Africa to provide the International Baccalaureate curriculum.
His passion and focus for Kenya stems from his childhood spent in Nairobi and Mombasa, before moving with his father to Tanzania, before taking over as his successor in 1957 to lead the Ismailites. He is also remembered for his passion for horses, yachts and feminine charms, although he never reached the levels of his father, who was expelled in the line of succession of the Imams after his marriage to the American actress Rita Hayworth. In the past, each return of the Islamic patron to Kenya was greeted by large gatherings of the Asian Muslim community.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres described the Aga Khan as ‘a symbol of peace, tolerance and compassion in our troubled world,’ he said.