Alderman Mohan Singh (1918-1966), a successful businessman of his day, made history when in 1957, he became the first non-European to hold the office of Deputy Mayor of Nairobi in colonial Kenya. He, however, passed away at a relatively young age of 48 following a heart attack in 1966 at Aga Khan Hospital, the very institution his construction firm built, which they even won an award for.
He came to Kenya in 1933 to join his brothers Puran Singh (arriving in 1929), Mistry Niranjan Singh and Kala Singh who came to East Africa to settle and build a business in construction work under their family undertaking of Naranjan Singh Brothers – one of the most successful, respect and well-renowned in the annals of Kenya’s Sikh history.
‘Alderman Mohan Singh – a man who even at the height of his public career never sought anything for himself.’
– The Standard Post, 1966
