The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media
platforms spanning newspaper print
operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a
leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and
international interest.
The Matis were among the most educated and exposed families in Kambaland.
A House Speaker, pioneer doctor and a renowned human rights crusader, were among the Matis, beginning with their patriarch, Gideon Mati wa Nzioka.
Born in Mwingi, then known as Kwa Vara (Farah’s Place) around 1882, wa Nzioka became a pioneer missionary, which exposed him to early education for which he became literate while serving with the British in today’s Tanzania in the three years to 1918.
Wa Nzioka practiced ‘white man’s magic’ (reading and writing) upon his return to ‘Kwa Vara’ and the larger Ukambani, with his family as among the earliest to receive education.
It is from this family that Mwalimu Mati, anti-corruption crusader and founder of Mars Group, his wife, Jayne Mati, MD, Mars Group Kenya, and their daughter, Christine Mati, a pilot and an instructor at 43 Air School in Port Alfred, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, trace their origin.
Fred Mati: Alumnus of Alliance High School and Makerere University, he was the first African House Speaker and one of two Kambas to earn a degree. His 18 years in Parliament from 1970 also made him the longest serving Speaker. He served as a member of the Legislative Council from 1961 and as first MP for Kitui North and Minister for Health and Housing from 1963 until his elevation to Speaker. Besides battling radical backbenchers, his tenure, one of the most tumultuous in Kenya’s parliamentary history, was punctuated by Parliament enacting a law that made Kenya a de jure single-party state on June 9, 1982.
Dr Samuel Mwinzi Mati: The Mang’u High School alumnus was for ages a consultant neurologist.
Prof Japheth Mati: Alumnus of Government African School, Kitui and Alliance High School Class of 1954, he was the first indigenous Kenyan professor of obstetrics and gynecology. He graduated from Makerere University in 1965, interned at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) before his appointment as Kisii Medical Officer of Health a year later.
Two years later, he was at KNH as Registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology. By 1971 and after stints at Queen Mother’s Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland - on a WHO Fellowship — Prof Mati was appointed Associate Professor at University of Nairobi where he was chair, department of obstetrics and gynaecology. He was awarded Doctor of Medicine for his thesis, Studies of Hypertension Pregnancy in Kenya. His bio, From Physician to Healers: Memories from a Divergent Past, was published in 2015.
