It is a rare occurrence for every member of a family to have the honour of being called "Professor". A family in Kenya has done the extraordinary by getting this rare achievement.
The family of Tharaka Nithi Senator Prof Kithure Kindiki is one of such as he is the fifth in a line of brothers who boast of this impressive academic record.
The Jubilee Senator holds a PhD in law from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and is in a heated political battle with his elder brother as they support different Party.
His brother Prof Isaiah Iguna Kindiki is a Professor of Soil Physics and doubles up as National Super Alliance NASA’s Tharaka Nithi campaign coordinator.
The brother who is a NASA affiliate is a Professor Extraordinaire at the University of South Africa and a research Professor at the University of Venda.
He will be challenging to unseat his brother for the Tharaka Nithi Senator seat under the Opposition banner.
Another of the Kindiki's is Prof Stephen Kithinji Kindiki, who is less known since he is not directly involved in politics.
Kithinji is a professor of Linguistics at Daystar University while the fourth sibling Prof Moses Mpuria Kindiki, teaches political economy at Maasai Mara University.
The eldest in the pack is Prof Jonah Nyaga Kindiki, a Professor of International Education and Policy, currently serving as the dean of the Faculty of Education at Moi University.
What is more impressive is that four other siblings in the same family are on their way to professorial status – they all have master’s degrees, and are at different stages working on their PhDs.
The brothers owe their academic prowess to their hardworking father who rose from abject poverty to a respected cleric in the region.
The patriarch Rev (RTD) Daniel Kindiki educated his children by ensuring they were disciplined in their academics after he joined the Methodist missionaries as narrated by Prof Iguna.
“Those days, the difference between church and school was narrow. We don’t know anything else out of school,” Prof Iguna divulged to a local daily.
