Calestous Juma [MIT MLK Visiting Professor 2014-15 in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning], the luminary Kenyan scholar who championed the cause of innovation and technology in transforming African countries, and whose books and papers about the environment, biotechnology, education, artificial intelligence, and the politics of land in Africa made him a towering figure both in the continent and across the world, has died. He was 64.

Juma, a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School, died while undergoing treatment in Boston, Massachusetts. His Kenyan lawyer, Peter Wanyama, told the Daily Nation newspaper that he had been unwell in recent weeks, and could not even attend his mother’s burial that took place two weeks ago.

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