Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiangi’s star continues shining as his no-nonsense approach to handling issues ripple around the country.
Born Fred Okengo Matiangi in Borabu, the father of two has a chequered career spanning university lecturing, global organisations’ consultations and working with Kenya’s parliament among others.
Dr Matiang’i is a Seventh Day Adventist who is said to be devoted to excellence.
When he took over the ministry of education in mid-2015, Dr Matiang’i said examination cartels were to blame for arson attacks in schools.
He said frustrated students who could not get national examination papers promised by the cartels were behind the spate of fires in schools.
“They said they had been promised they would get samples towards the end of the second term but that has not been the case,” Dr Matiang’i said.
Matiang'i said the key trigger for the anarchy was fear that the students would fail exams because they had not been shown the sample tests.
By then, more than 100 schools have been affected by the protests in two months.
He took action!
Dr Matiang’i imposed tough guidelines sealing loopholes that would have been exploited by the cheating cartels and with this, he talked of a clique of head teachers trying to push him out of office because of the reforms he introduced in the ministry.
He cited conduct of national examinations and overhauling procurement systems to give the government greater say in the supply process as the raw nerves he had touched.
He added that some principals were being investigated over theft of funds and irregular tendering and that some were unhappy with his impromptu visits to schools.
Despite all the resistance, Dr Matiang’i said he would see all the reforms “to their logical conclusion”.
With this stance, Dr Matiang’i managed to tame the monster that was threatening the stability of the education sector which had become a multi-million enterprise.
Those pushing for him to close schools to avert the crises met resistance as the CS stayed put.
Before taking up his role at the ministry of education, Dr Matiang’i was the Information, Communication and Technology CS. He was moved to education after the resignation of some CS’s and the reshuffling that ensued.
Dr Matiang’i is the world’s foremost expert on the Kenyan legislature with more than 12 years’ experience in democratic development.
He has worked with the Kenya Parliamentary Strengthening Project for six years serving first as the Deputy Director & Senior Programme Officer for three years and then as Chief of Party for another three years.
At the time, Dr Matiang’i served as a liaison between the LSP, USAID/Kenya, and the Parliament of Kenya where he secured stakeholder buy-in, facilitated programme objectives.
Prior to becoming a CS, Dr Matiang’i was in civil society advocacy, and donor-funded democracy and governance projects.
He also taught at the English Department, University of Nairobi and Egerton University.
His consultation is extensive from working with USAID, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the World Bank, The Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Transparency International.
Dr Matiangi’s has a Doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of Nairobi, a Master’s Degree in English from the University of Nairobi, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Kenyatta University.
Before joining the government, Dr Matiangi was the Eastern Africa regional Representative for the Centre for International Development, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, the State University of New York.
With his performance at the ministry of education, is Dr Matiang’i the president Kenyans have been looking for?