Kenya

Kenya: News, Stories and Analysis.

Nairobi

Nairobi in a Song A Boy, His Father, and Old Tunes

‘To Kenyans, 2023 feels like the year the country dies. But within this Rhumba and Jazz establishment in Nairobi’s Tao, it could as well be 1970,’ Ogwa writes. ‘Perched behind a corner table with two cold bottles of beer sweating before me, I pass a quintessential moment, watching folks of all ages waltz elegantly to Cabo Verde Barefoot Diva, Cesária Évora’s “Partida”... For me, old music is not just entertainment, it’s a compass with which I always find my way back to me.’
Muthoni Muiruri

‘I Love Books That Evoke an Emotional Reaction in Me’ Muthoni Muiruri’s First Draft

Kenyan publisher and co-founder of Soma Nami Books, Muthoni Muiruri, loves to read books that are intellectually stimulating and evoke an emotional reaction: ‘If a book makes me cry and teaches me empathy; if the characters stay with me long after reading, I consider that a forever book. I am also extremely grateful for books that teach me something, that challenge me and force me to reckon with my ignorance and biases and that compel me to want to research and learn.’

The Many Faces of Binyavanga Wainaina The Important Truths in How to Write About Africa

The late Kenyan writer, Binyavanga Wainaina, made a career out of collecting and creating certain truths, whether of Africa, or of food, or of colonialism, or of racism, or of any of the other things that excited him intellectually. In a new posthumous collection of essays collected by Achal Prabhala, the truths most important to him are presented to us.