Robert Matende, an advocate of the High Court /BRIAN OTIENO
For believers, names have power.
Perhaps this was always on Rev. John Owuor’s mind when he named his grandchild.
Melchizedek means, among other things, justice, Robert Matende
tells the Star.
Apart from preaching, Rev Owuor was a professional tailor, having studied his trade in Japan, and he later became tailor to Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
“Jaramogi used to get his suits from him,” Matende says of his grandfather.
“My grandfather named me upon birth Melchizedek Matende,” he said.
Growing up he always wondered by his reverend grandfather named him ‘Justice’.
When he came of age to understand what justice means, he made a conscious decision to pursue justice for all, to honour his grandfather.
Matende started school at Lions Primary in Kakamega, way ahead of his time. He always followed his elder brother to school and insisted on sitting next to him in class.
He did this for about three years until he got to Class 1, when the reality and limitations of his young age caught up with him and he could no longer grasp the more complex school subjects.
“The fact is I was still a baby,” he says. “My brother was three years older than me. Teachers had to stop me from attending class, saying I should stay at home and come of age first. I had to drop out of school, where I was not supposed to be in in the first place,” Matende says.
Later he joined Kakamega Elite Junior School, starting all over again from Nursery 1.
In 1999, the family moved from Kakamega to Nairobi, where his father had secured a job, and he joined Bidii Primary School in Buru Buru Phase 2.
“At Bidii I learnt what caning meant,” he says. “It was a culture shock for me and it took some time to adapt.”
Then his father lost his job and life became a constant struggle, moving from place to place in search of affordable shelter.
The struggles hurt his grades in school.
And because they were living in Eastlands, his behaviour started changing, gravitating towards the life of crime associated with ghetto life.
He had joined a group of neighbour children who were stealing TV aerials and selling them in Mutindwa.
“You would buy an aerial, install it, we would come and sell it to the same man who sold it to the theft victim.
“We were a bit of delinquents but I thank God for my father because he realised this and moved us out of Eastlands,” Matende says. At the time he was only in Class 7.
He then joined Aquinas High, where he got another culture shock. The indiscipline there made him think he would not finish high school.
Luckily, in 2008, he did his KCSE exam.
“After high school, I wanted something to do as I await my results. A friend, Victor Omondi, had called me to town one day, saying he had some venture for me,” Matende says.
While on his way to town, police flagged his matatu down and the women passengers protested.
“We found ourselves in Makongeni police station. The women who were protesting the loudest were set free, while some of us who were quiet throughout the journey were detained. The officer who flagged us down said we had insulted him and had not put on our seat belts,” Matende recalls.
While at the police cells, he saw people buy their freedom, yet he had nothing on him to give.
“It was my first arrest. I didn’t know how people survive in cells. That is when I convinced myself I wanted to become a lawyer and fight such injustices,” he said.
Because he did not have high enough marks for a degree programme, he started with a diploma in law at the Nairobi Institute of Business Studies, while looking for any part-time job.
Senior advocate Norah Owino took him on to help her firm, where he would be the errand boy, delivering letters to clients, drafting letters, among other tasks.
Owino introduced Matende to Captain (Rtd) Joseph Mare, who also mentored him.
“They taught me law and by the time I was enrolling for a law degree at Mt Kenya University, I had almost everything in my mind,” he says.
Owino, Matende says, allowed him to work for half a day, from morning to midday, before dashing to class.
After law school, he and colleague Solomon Akanga opened a law firm, Akanga Matende and Company Advocates.
It has offices in in Diani in Kwale, Nairobi and Vihiga counties, but his main office was in Vihiga.
“Before finishing my studies, I used to do public interest matters,” Matende says. “I filed a petition concerning the National Youth Council, which had not held elections for a long time. It was thrown out.”
When he first went to the Coast, he realised there are so many issues requiring legal intervention, especially land matters in Kwale county.
At the Coast, his first matter was against a company that had been allocated land by the government, but that land previously had been allocated to squatters by the same government.
He won the case and the government was ordered to compensate the squatters and allocate them new land.
“It is very difficult to get a judgment whereby you are being compensated financially and at the same time being given alternative land. Usually, it’s either one or the other,” Matende says.
The born-again Christian usually handles public interest matters, mostly for those who cannot afford legal fees.
“I do a lot of pro bono,” he says. “The reason is that when I did not have school fees, I used to pray to God. I asked Him to help me finish my schooling, and I promised Him I would help those who do not have money, and He sends them to me.”
Matende says even Europeans have come to him without any money after suffering con game ordeals at the hands of Kenyan women in Diani.
The advocate loves karaoke and sings to unwind, given the demanding his demanding schedule.
“I love travelling and helping people. I travel a lot. But I am also a quiet guy, an introvert of some sort. But when I see any rights violations, the beast in me wakes up,” he says.
His love of travelling and his helping nature have taken him to many places where he helped strangers many times.
“When I used to work for Owino, she used to send me to different
places in Kenya, so I got to see how people live. This opened my eyes in a lot
of ways,” Matende says.
He usually compared the places he visited with his home county,
Vihiga, and there was a huge difference, which bothered him a lot.
“The way people lived in other places and the way people lived in Vihiga were totally different. I used to feel something was not right somewhere. I kept telling people one day I will do something,” the lawyer says.
He is determined to make a difference in society and that is why he is eying the Luanda MP seat in Vihiga.
Matende says he has the necessary leadership skills and determination to help turn around the lives of people in Luanda.
“In as much as the current MP appears to be doing nothing, I feel there is more that can be done,” the lawyer says. “I feel there is a lot of potential in Luanda constituency. The way the people live is not how they should be living.”
He says the gold found in the constituency should help uplift
living standards.
“These are some of the things I want to enlighten the people about,” Matende adds. “Already I have written a to the Education ministry to protest how the mining firm was trying to relocate a school unprocedurally.”
