Shirikisho Party of Kenya Secretary-General and Director of Programmes, Sheikh Juma Ngao (left), former Tourism minister, Mr Morris Dzoro, Transport minister, Mr Chirau Ali Mwakwere (right), with former Kanu Secretary-General and Cabinet minister, Robert Stanley Matano at his home in Mazeras, Mombasa on Friday. Looking on is Matano’s wife, Mama Ruth Matano.
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Story by Patrick Beja
Robert Stanley Matano, 83, died in a Mombasa hospital on Monday morning, marking the end of an era and leaving many a Coast politician he mentored as political orphans.
His younger brother, Mr Morris Mwenda, said the veteran politician was rushed to hospital two weeks ago after he collapsed at his Mbuyuni home in Mazeras.
"He showed signs of recovery, but due to age-related complications and what appeared like a stroke, he succumbed," Mwenda explained.
In an interview, Mwenda, 76, said for a long time, Matano had ailed and could not walk.
The politician was once involved in a road accident and in his sunset days was confined to a wheelchair.
His body is lying at the Pandya Memorial Hospital in Mombasa pending burial at his Mbuyuni home in Mazeras.
He leaves behind two widows, Mrs Ruth Kwekwe Matano and Mrs Susan Matano, and 16 children.
Matano, a former teacher and district education officer, was among pre-independence politicians who attended the Lancaster House conference in London in the 1960s.
He attended Mazeras School, CMS School in Kaloleni, Kaaga High School in Meru and Alliance High School between 1936 and 1945.
He graduated with a Diploma in Education at the Makerere University in 1948 to start his teaching career at Ribe Boys Junior Secondary School.
He entered politics in 1960 and became the Kinango MP from 1961 to 1988. His mentor was the late Coast politician, Ronald Ngala, with whom he crossed over from the Kenya African Democratic Union to Kenya African National Union (Kanu).
He was later to become a mentor for many Coast politicians, including former Cabinet ministers, the late Shariff Nassir and Mr Noah Katana Ngala. Matano was among the founders of the Coast-based Shirikisho Party of Kenya (SPK) whose leader is Transport minister, Mr Chirau Ali Mwakwere.
He made his last public appearance last year when he was called to address SPK delegates at Reef Hotel in Mombasa after Mwakwere took over as Shirikisho party leader. Matano assured party members that "once a politician he would always remain one" and he would be available for consultation.
Matano had a chequered political career as a freedom fighter, a powerful Cabinet minister in both founding President Kenyatta and retired President Daniel Moi’s regimes, and later transformed himself to a rural farmer at his Mazeras village home. He wielded immense power when he succeeded former minister, Tom Mboya, who was assassinated in 1969.
During the Kenyatta and Moi regimes, Matano was known to be tough on matters of discipline that always made him differ with Kanu members.
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Sources: The Standard
Published on March 12, 2008,
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