Kenneth Matiba

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Kenneth Matiba Is Kenyan politician, who fought for democracy in Kenya.

Kenneth Matiba was the chairman of Kenya Football Federation from 1974 to 1978.

Later he served as a Minister of Transport and Communications, under the KANU administration led by then president Daniel Arap Moi, but Matiba resigned from his post in December 1988.

Matiba was detained at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in 1990 without trial. He was prisoned together with Charles Rubia, another leading figure calling for multiparty democracy [1]. Later, multiparty system was inaugurated and Matiba was released.

He was part of the opposition alliance that formed the popular movement by the name FORD. During the 1992 elections, he took the second position on FORD-Asili ticket, a party that he had helped found by splintering from the originial FORD. President Moi won the elections on KANU's ticket.

Matiba boycotted the 1997 elections citing undemocracy and even burned his voter’s card [2].

Matiba has a long-standing rivarly with the current Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. Before the 2002 elections, Matiba was leader of the small Saba Saba Asili party, which declined to join the NARC coalition [3]. Matiba did not run for precidency or parliamentary seat.

More recently, Matiba has been dogged by ill-health, which he alleges was caused by poisoning while held in government detention. Additionally, his business empire has suffered with first his hotel chain being taken into administration, although he has since regained control, and then his Hillcrest schools being sold by administrators, a case which is still in court.

Matiba is also founder of The People (Kenya) newspaper. It started as a weekly in 1992, but turned to daily in 1998. The paper is among Matiba's troubled finances [4].

Matiba is famous for his quote "Moi Must Go!"