Hassan Omar Hassan Sarai is a Kenyan politician who served as Mombasa Senator between 2013 and 2017.
Sarai was born in Mombasa on October 23, 1973. He hails from a prominent family as his mother was a member of the Mazrui family. The Mazrui clan is one of the wealthiest in Kenya, having ruled parts of coastal towns in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Sarai attended local schools for his primary education before joining Lenana School for his high school education. He trained briefly for the Kenya Airforce but dropped out to study law at Moi University.
At Moi, Omar was a radical student leader who was expelled after leading a protracted strike that sought to have the university renamed to drop the name of Daniel Arap Moi who was accused of being a dictator and an academic dwarf.
In 2003, he was allowed to return to university after then newly elected President Mwai Kibaki nullified the politically instigated expulsion of students. He was picked to serve in the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) where he served until 2012 when he resigned to join politics.
In 2013, Omar was elected Mombasa Senator on a Wiper ticket. He later became the party’s Secretary General. In 2017, he sought to unseat Governor Hassan Ali Joho but emerged a distant third.
He resigned from the Wiper party and has since switched loyalties to Deputy President William Ruto.
The former Senator is now part of Ruto’s strategists in the 2022 presidential campaign team. He is reported to be lobbying the civil society to support the DP’s bid and is also a ground mobiliser in the coast region. He led the campaigns for Ruto-allied independent candidate Feisal Bader who won the Msambweni by-elections.