In an unprecedented turn of events, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has mourned former Kenyan politician Cyrus Jirongo, nine months after his death in a road crash along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.
Museveni took to social media on Monday, saying he did not know that Jirongo had passed away.
“I have just learnt that Senator (sic) Cyrus Jirongo passed away last December in a motor accident. I was not aware that he had died. This is very sad. Jirongo was a good and patriotic leader who served his country with dedication,” Museveni said.
“We shall miss him. My condolences go to his family, relatives, friends and the people of Kenya. May his soul rest in peace.”
In the post, the Ugandan President erroneously referred to Jirongo as a “Senator”, although the 64-year-old politician served as Lugari MP and a minister under late former President Daniel arap Moi.
The message came hours after Museveni named a Kenyan legislator whom he only identified as ‘Jirongo’ as the whistleblower who exposed alleged irregularities in East Africa’s Government-to-Government (G-to-G) oil importation deal.
According to Museveni, Jirongo told him about the alleged backdoor oil dealings in 2019.
“It was a Kenyan Senator called Jirongo who told me this around 2019. I immediately tasked the then Minister Irene Muloni to sort out that mess,” said the Ugandan leader in a tweet on Sunday evening.
The revelations followed Museveni’s revelations on Thursday, in which he said Uganda had previously procured petroleum products through intermediaries in Kenya, rather than directly from the government as outlined in the G-to-G framework.
“The Republic of Uganda was buying petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya. Can you imagine that? And the person who woke me up first was a senator from Kenya,” Museveni said during the groundbreaking ceremony for a 320-million-litre petroleum storage terminal in Mpigi District, Uganda.
Jirongo died on December 13, 2025, at Karai along the Nakuru-Nairobi Highway.
Rift Valley Regional Traffic Commander Sara Chumo confirmed that Jirongo died on the spot in the accident that occurred at 3 a.m.
According to the traffic boss, Jirongo was headed in the direction of Nairobi in his Mercedes Benz saloon car before he collided head on with a bus that was headed the opposite direction.
In January 2026, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said a probe established that there was no foul play in the ex-legislator's demise.