Mary Sagini, the widow of Kenya’s first African Education Minister, Lawrence Sagini, has died.

According to her family, Sagini died on Tuesday night at Avenue Hospital in Nairobi, where she was receiving treatment for breast cancer, an illness she had battled for years.

Sagini, who was over 100 years old, was married to Lawrence Sagini and together they had six children.

Lawrence is remembered as a transformative independence-era leader, who served as Kenya’s first African Minister for Education between 1962 and 1963.

He later became the first Member of Parliament for Kitutu West in 1963 and was appointed Minister for Local Government in 1964, a position he held until 1969.

Lawrence died on August 1, 1995, in a road accident at Chepseon market on the Nakuru-Kericho road.