The 69-year-old judge died Wednesday at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after a long illness, just weeks before retirement. Born in 1956, he became the first from Kenya's Somali community to join the Bar in 1983, built a practice in constitutional and human rights law, and endured detention in 1990 for supporting multiparty democracy.
Appointed to the Supreme Court in 2011, he championed minority rights and earned tributes from Chief Justice Martha Koome as a steadfast guardian, President William Ruto as a principled jurist, and many others for his barrier-breaking legacy. His calm rulings strengthened Kenya's rule of law.