Matiba was forced out of public consciousness in life, national economy

David Goldsworthy called Tom Mboya the man Kenya wanted to forget. The late Australian professor of history said after Kenya killed one of her most illustrious sons in 1969, she did everything possible to bury his memory. Goldsworthy travelled all the way from Oceania to sojourn among us, to research and publish the volume titled Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget.

If Kenya wanted to forget Mboya in his death, has the country wanted to forget Kenneth Stanley Njindo Matiba in life? If Mboya stopped the assassin’s bullet in broad daylight in downtown Nairobi, Matiba was forced out of public consciousness in life. He was also forced out of the national economy through State-sponsored destruction of a business empire he built in the prime of his youth. In a sense, Kenya killed Matiba way before his physical death this week. Ken Matiba was another man Kenya killed and wanted to forget.

As young people in high school in the 1970s, we knew of Matiba as a man bigger than life. We heard of him as a talented farmer and a rare business executive. He was growing tea, coffee and horticultural farm produce and exporting to Europe. He was a dairy farmer and an employer to thousands of young people from across the Kenyan nation. He was also running one of the most successful corporate entities in the country at the time, the East African Breweries Limited (EABL).

In our Emanyulia, the older people talked of “going to Matiba’s to take one for the road . . . baada ya kazi.” Every pub, they joked, was Matiba’s. They said that for every bottle of beer sold, one shilling was his. Apocryphal as it may be, the narrative attests to the massive personal economic empire that the man had built. Yet his tour of duty at EABL was not just about himself. EABL was one of the most sought-after employers, on account of the hugely competitive terms. Staff welfare under this man’s watch was legendary. EABL also became famous for sports, and especially for football.

Commitment to human rights

As the leading employer of most young men then playing in Kenya’s football Super League, Matiba decided that he would use football to market his company. EABL employees were given the option to join the newly formed Breweries Football Club, or to seek employment elsewhere. Most chose to stay. One of the most formidable football clubs in Eastern Africa was born. The patron went on to become the chairman of the Kenya Football Federation. Under his watch, Kenya’s Harambee Stars became a household name throughout East Africa. The Stars tormented competitors in the region, collecting every trophy in then East African Senior Challenge Cup, year after year – even long after Matiba had left the sports scene.

We recall how the organisational skills he had gathered over the years as a talented farmer, a sportsman and a corporate manager came in handy when Kenya hosted the World’s Women Conference in Nairobi in July 1985. For a solid two-week period, the entire world was riveted on Nairobi. The city was abuzz with pomp and splendor as the global community brought the searchlight to bear on the challenges of womanhood throughout the world. Matiba, who had recently been elected MP for Mbiri Constituency in Murang’a, was now the Minister for Culture and Social Services. He was the official host of this conference, under the aegis of the United Nations. As a youthful producer of radio programmes at the Voice of Kenya, it was a rare delight to interview this man in those days when Cabinet Ministers were veritably beyond reach. He demonstrated deep knowledge of issues and profound personal passion for women’s rights as human rights.

His commitment to human rights was increasingly brought to test when in 1989 he resigned from his job in the Cabinet, to fight erosion of democracy in the country. His friend Charles Rubia did the same. In a brief statement, Matiba said he would no longer keep quiet as human rights continued to be derogated. He would fight to put things right, he said. He called for opening up of political space, to make room for multiparty democracy. It was a shocker. How could this man who seemed to have it all so neatly sewn up abandon the comforts and trappings of good living, to engage in the politics of the trenches?

It was hard to believe that he would sustain the struggle. But Matiba proved pundits wrong. On New Year’s Day in 1990, he publicly declared this to be the year of multiparty democracy in Kenya. He had gone beyond daring to foolhardy. Yet this call alone galvanised other voices into life. Soon, everywhere, people were loudly talking about multiparty democracy. Others, notably Mwai Kibaki, dismissed them as daydreamers. Regardless, Matiba and the democrats forged on. A few days to the much-anticipated July 7 multiparty rally – christened Saba Saba – the police pounced upon him in the streets of Nairobi. He was locked up without trial. Thus began a detention stint that permanently destroyed his health, his business empire and his life.

On December 29, 1992, our entire village of Emanyulia voted for Ken Matiba. Even elderly grandmothers and grandpas in the village had only one word on their lips, “Matiba.” We wanted him to be our President. We lost. We still believe our election was stolen. We also voted for his Ford Asili candidates in Butere, Ikolomani, Lurambi, Shinyalu and Lugari Constituencies in the then Kakamega District. Only Mumias and Malava went to Kanu. But defections soon took place and reversed the gains of our democracy. As we recall all this in our village, we know a great man has gone to sleep. Let him not die.

- The writer is a strategic public communications adviser. [email protected]