Hentihu worked as a manager in several companies before being elected to the Central Maluku Regional People's Representative Council from
Golkar in the
1992 elections. He was re-elected to the council for a second time in
1997. His second term, which was supposed to end in 2002, ended in 1999 due to the political developments following the fall of Suharto. He was then elected to the Maluku Regional People's Representative Council in the
1999 elections. The Maluku government then appointed Rusdi Sangadji as the acting regent. An election for a definitive regent was held on 6 September 2001, with Hentihu coming out as the winner, but several Buru local parliament members deemed it invalid. Another election was then held several months later and was won again by Hentihu. He was then installed as a regent around 2002. Before the end of his first term, Hentihu announced his intention to run again as a candidate for the Regent of Buru in the upcoming election. He picked Ramly Umasugi, who was serving as the speaker of Buru's parliament at that time, as his running mate. Hentihu and Umasugi was supported by Golkar Hentihu's opponents protested his victory by claiming that Hentihu committed electoral fraud, and their supporters held a protest at the local electoral commission office. Hentihu oversaw the formation of the
South Buru regency during his tenure. Hentihu nominated Hakim Fatsey, one of his subordinates, as the regency's secretary. Hentihu's appointment of Fatsey to the South Buru regency was viewed as some sort of exile due to his mismanagement of the education agency in Buru. Hentihu's decision was soon protested by the South Buru populace Hentihu's second term as regent ended on 2 February 2012. In August 2016, a group of students named the Maluku Muslim Youth Front protested in front of the
Corruption Eradication Commission, demanding Hentihu be investigated for his involvement in a corruption case. Hentihu was accused of embezzling funds during his tenure as regent. == Personal life and death ==