MAISHA YETU
Today I have the single unenviable task of writing about Ngugi when everyone has written what is to be written about Kenya’s foremost writer, who went to join his ancestors on Wednesday last week. So where do I start? Well, I will start from the very beginning. Growing up, I didn’t encounter much of Ngugi; […]
For purposes of this story, I will start by going down memory lane, where we meet Ancent Soi, who was employed as a shop assistant at a curio store belonging to former Kamukunji MP, George Nthenge, at the City Market. Now curio shops are filled with, among other things, colourful artefacts meant for the tourist […]
There is something about Mathemboni that makes you want to keep going back. Last Saturday was my third time, since November last year, and it definitely will not be the last. There is a certain aura of peace that pervades the place. Situated on a hilly place, Mathemboni, to those who have never been there, […]
Kinyanjui Kombani: Wueh! How time flies! First, it is an opportunity to reflect on my own writing and publishing journey. Life moves so quickly that we forget about how far we have come. When I wrote the book, all I wanted was to see it on a shelf at a bookshop — specifically, at the […]
TITLE: In and Outside Africa: A Story of the Human Condition in Africa and the West AUTHOR: Dominik Langenbacher PUBLISHER: Mystery Publishers REVIEWER: Mbugua Ngunjiri In the course of his long and eventful diplomatic service, Langenbacher worked in many places around the globe, but it would appear that Africa had the most profound effect on […]
TITLE: My Life in Prison AUTHOR: John Kiriamiti PUBLISHER: East African Educational Publishers REVIEWER: Scholastica Moraa Following the sensation that was My Life in Crime, My Life in Prison tells the horror that was prison life for Jack Zollo, the writer of the two books. Fortunately, prison life is the kind of life most people […]
TITLE: Daring AUTHOR: Rehema Malemba Kiteto GENRE: Memoir PUBLISHER: The Writers Guild-Kenya REVIEWER: Kelvin Jaluo Shachile Coming of age novels must be among the best books we recommend to teenagers and young adults. My assumption for this has always been that coming of age novels are books and stories that allow these young people to […]
TITLE: The Odyssey of the Nubi: From soldiers of the British Empire to Full Citizens in Uganda AUTHOR: Moses Ali PUBLISHER: Jescho Publishing House REVIEWER: Mbugua Ngunjiri AVAILABILITY: Nuria Bookstores Uganda, as a country, has had a chequered history marked by leadership struggles informed by much bloodletting. For Kenyans, the much they know about the […]
When Dan Kairo says he is a Mau Mau detainee it is somewhat difficult to believe his assertion. For one, he was born in June 1954, while the State of Emergency, that ushered in mass detentions of Kikuyus, had been declared a year before. “I was two months old, still on my mother’s back, when […]
By Mbugua Ngunjiri In 2021, when the Pandora Papers ‘scandal’ broke, Kenyans learnt that the Kenyatta family has stashed funds in foreign accounts. Now, there are a number of reasons why certain people chose to spirit their monies in those tax havens. Chief among the reasons such people hide their money, whether clean or dirty, […]