Not much is said about Isaiah Mathenge, a former Provincial Commissioner (PC) and a strong and no-nonsense ally of founding father Jomo Kenyatta.
Not only a friend but also a relative of Kenyatta, Mathenge’s star started to shine immediately after independence when he was appointed District Officer in Homabay before becoming the Nyanza PC.
In 1971 he was moved to Rift Valley where he ruled with an iron fist until Kenyatta’s death in 1978, after which President Daniel Moi took over.
After his retirement, he shifted to politics, beginning with the Mathira parliamentary seat where he appeared third in 1983.
He was later appointed the Chairman of Moi’s KANU party in Nyeri, but would later lose it when he openly defied Moi at a public function.
On this day in 1978, the President had visited the district to officially open the Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) show at the Ruring’u grounds.
While at the podium, Moi fired salvos at Mathenge who, however, remained comfortably seated at a time when anyone in his shoes would have been expected to stand up and take the condemnation in a respectful and remorseful manner.
To top it off, he calmly folded his arms in front of his chest and looked on, an open show of defiance which, as was expected, saw him dropped as the KANU chairman in that region the very next day.
But this was all he needed to enter elective politics as though he lost the next general polls in 1988, the former PC emerged the victor in 1992, probably because of the popularity his daring defiance earned him.
He lost his seat in 1997 before slipping into silence, and later succumbed to a long illness at the Nairobi Hospital in January 2006.
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