Matiba’s legacy lives on in a new generation of Kenyan leaders

Indisputably, Kenneth Stanley Njindo Matiba, who passed away after a long illness on April 15, 2018, is one of the makers of 20th century Kenya.

But the real legacy of Matiba, one of the most charismatic and inspirational figures of his generation, is weightier than the epithets of an educator, a pioneer civil servant, a sports enthusiast, an astute businessman and investor, and a shining light of Kenya’s second liberation.

It was the Greek philosopher Epictetus who said: “We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout”.  

Matiba was that image, our shining light upon a hill and an exceptional mentor whose life story reveals what a focused and disciplined life can achieve across generations.

MENTORSHIP
Matiba brings to mind Alexander the Great, who valued mentorship so highly that he used to say he owed a bigger debt to his mentor and teacher, Aristotle, for giving him knowledge than to his father Philip for life.

Matiba was himself mentored by Carey Francis, the legendary headmaster of the prestigious Alliance High School where he studied.

The lesson from Matiba’s academic life at Makerere University, where he earned a BA degree in History, Sociology and Geography and a diploma in education in 1960 — disciplines often chided as unattractive to the job market — is that character and hard work trump papers!

And from his humble beginnings as a teacher at Kangaru School, Embu, we learn that success is not a gold rush, but usually comes softly.

SPORTS
Matiba’s appointment as deputy officer in charge of higher education at the Ministry of Education unveiled his role as one of the makers of the 20th century.

“My position was so crucial that no passport could be issued to any student going overseas without my signature,” he wrote in his autobiography, Aiming High, released in 2000.

Matiba paved the way for the airlifts, which created the first generation of Kenya’s intelligentsia and senior civil servants.

This role was enhanced with his appointment as the first indigenous Permanent Secretary (PS) for Education in 1963, later moving to PS Commerce in 1964 where he worked under Mwai Kibaki as Minister.

John F. Kennedy, who greatly inspired many young Kenyan leaders like Tom Mboya in the 1960s, may have influenced Matiba’s rendition of sports as the core of society’s character and intellect.

“Physical fitness,” Kennedy said, “is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity”. Sport is at the core of effective nation-building.

ADVENTURE
At Alliance, his alma mater, the “Matiba Cup” was introduced in his honour in 1970 and awarded to the best “all round student” at Form Four.

In 1974, Matiba was elected chairman of the Kenya Football Association (KFA).

During one of his weekend impromptu visits to Kirogo Secondary School in his Kahuhia home, where he served as the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Matiba wondered why we were idling around, walking about and not playing.

A week later, he delivered a load of sports equipment.

Matiba, who climbed Mt Kenya 18 times, combined his love for adventure and mentoring.

As Minister for Works, he invited us as university students to join him in an 85-kilometer walk from Nairobi to Murang’a in support of the first-ever African team to the Himalayas he led in October 1986.

“The distance you have covered is longer than what remains,” he encouraged potential quitters.

BUSINESS
Eventually, sportsmanship, adventure and patriotism triumphed: Matiba reached the 20,500 feet Island Peak, where he managed to plant the Kenyan flag.

Matiba’s success as an astute businessman and investor is a lesson in a fine blend of strategic thinking, talent, experience and gut.

Although he mulled over starting his own airline to airlift his farm produce to the market; established the Alliance Group of Hostels; and was executive chairman of Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL); the acme of his mentorship was the prestigious Hillcrest Group of Schools.

Jointly with the African Council on Communication Education (ACCE), his ThePeople newspaper, founded in 1993, pioneered in training young Kenyan investigative journalists.

Further, the well-managed 12,350-acre Wangu Embori Farm remains Matiba’s strongest legacy in community empowerment.

POLITICS
In Aiming High (Chapter 9), Matiba calls for a principled genre of politics as the apex of community service.

“I do not regard myself as a politician who follows a political career as a profession regardless of principle,” he wrote, adding that: “I am only a man in politics.”

Matiba won the 1979 Mbiri (now Kiharu) parliamentary election, becoming one of Kanu-era’s powerful ministers.

At the time, President Daniel arap Moi and Kanu were underwriting “youth mentoring” to brunt student militancy and forestall pluralism by sponsoring dinner dances, visits to State House, Kabarnet Gardens and to join his trips abroad.

In one of these visits to Kabarnet Gardens, we were left with no doubt that Moi and Matiba were bosom friends.

Moi repeatedly referred to Matiba, fondly, as “Ken” — and contributed generously to Matiba’s efforts to fundraise for Murang’a College of Technology.

ELECTION RIGGING
Why Moi turned so hard on so close a personal friend on account of his stand on multiparty politics is perplexing.

Matiba’s ultimate lesson in principled politics is that even at the edge of the sword, leadership must be principled.

On December 9, 1988, Matiba resigned from the Cabinet following election-rigging during the infamous mlolongo (queue-voting).

Challenging the one-party state in the sunset years was a dangerous mission, which carried a heavy cost.

Matiba escaped a raid by gangsters in his Limuru home in 1990, believed to have been sent to kill him for challenging the Kanu hegemony.

STROKE
Matiba and Charles Rubia were detained to forestall a rally they had called at the historic Kamukunji Grounds on July 7, 1990 in Nairobi, to press for comprehensive constitutional and political reforms.

In the war of “Second Liberation”, Matiba lost several battles.

His business empire was crippled; he suffered a stroke and was denied medication, leading to his incapacitation; and his supporters still believe — and perhaps rightly — that his victory in December 1992 was stolen.

But Matiba won the war. He leaves Kenya as a multiparty democracy — his ever lasting legacy.

Shannon Alders’ sagely words are a fitting tribute to a hero: “Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones”.

Matiba’s legacy will forever live in our hearts.

Professor Peter Kagwanja is a former Government Adviser and Chief Executive of the Africa Policy Institute.