8 Kenyan Authors you should know about

Phyian Karinge
Mar 30, 2022
5 min read

Updated: Apr 7, 2022

Having grown up under the wings of western influence in; cartoons, movies, and music;

It is now a deliberate goal of mine, as an adult to grow in my Pan-African-ness.

A lot of us have unconscious biases against our own; evident through our watch lists on Netflix, playlists on Spotify, content on YouTube, and even more importantly in our reading lists.

And no, it is not a question of taste, "I like what I like"

It is oftentimes an underlying and subtle belief of the superiority of one over another, which in most cases, we have without knowing.

Let's prove that;

When was the last time you read a book by an author from your country or continent?

Yeah, I thought so.

I'm guilty as charged too.

A shame, I know, and perhaps because it was unconscious, let us extend extra grace to ourselves.

This post is not intended to guilt you into doing anything.

The feelings and choices that shall be evoked upon reading this are entirely your responsibility.

The intention of this post, however, is to awaken us by celebrating the creators that many of us have bypassed, particularly in the literature space.

Through this celebration, I hope that we can come to, and not only shift in our periphery of interest, but also join in the growth of our culture.

I credit this season of learning, in part to my passionate cousin & friend Joy Karinge Nyokabi, Founder of Afrika Yangu, for questioning me, challenging my choices and beliefs, and in turn creating a mini Pan Africanist advocate.

Alexa play Celebration by JoeBoy;

1. Titus Ndiritu - What I never told you: memoirs of a recovering addict.

This is the first memoir in Kenya's history to tackle the taboo subject of sex addiction.

I'm laughing as I write the story behind this book.

I first read it in 2019, when we were on break from school.

I was seeking an industrial attachment/internship.

I remember as I was reading it, I was called in for an interview, and as fate would have it, the interviewer asked me about my current read.

I told him that the book was on sex addiction; he was surprised, we had a laugh and I got the job.

I don't think this book could ever get away from me.

Raw, honest, borderline scary but overall sad.

The Daily nation is right, this is certainly a must-read.

You can find this book at your nearest books store in Kenya.

2) Wanjiru Koinange - The Havoc of Choice

Our Kenyan literary sweetheart!

Look at that smile!

A lover of books and shiny things; Wanjiru describes herself.

Like many of us, Wanjiru wanted to pursue her passion, but also make bank while at it.

Having worked in the music industry and tech scene, Wanjiru decided to make the jump to pursue her true love; Writing.

She purposed to make it make bank.

She then went off to do her Master's in creative writing, which led her face to face with her now, bestseller; The Havoc of Choice. This is our April read fellow bookiez; get it here.

As an avid Pan African writer, Wanjiru Founded Book Bunk as a way to restore Kenya's heritage and story as held by its libraries.

Now that is Legacy.

As a personal side note; She reminds me so much of Jules from over 25.

2) Qui Qarre - Broken Vase

The bias I spoke about earlier; I experienced it when I first met Qui Qarre.

She handed me her first book; Tears of the pen, and in my head, I thought;

'Acha tusupport local', holding on to the subconscious belief that local is less than.

Boy, was I wrong! The book of poems was beautiful, to say the least!

The non-readers in our household loved it!

That is proof enough.

We celebrate you Qui, especially with the recent launch of your second book;

The Broken Vase is available on Amazon here.

3) Troy Onyango - For What Are Butterflies without wings

I sank into a deep rabbit hole as I did my research on Troy.

All the while, I felt frustrated for not knowing him earlier.

Troy's work;

I was enamored by his writing on Sunset Dreams.

I shed a little tear.

He is the author of; We are The Water , All Things Bright & Beautiful, Little Daju, Peregrination, Wet Ash and The Transfiguration

His other gems lurking on the internet, include; The Short Story is Dead which can be found here.

Troy is the Founder of Lolwe in 2021 - an online magazine that publishes literary work by Black writers to ensure greater visibility for stories by Black people and to give space for the “Black imagination

What tops this magnificence is the meaning of the word Lolwe- a traditional Luo name for Lake Victoria meaning “endless lake/water body”.

Therefore, Lolwe means endless or limitless.

I could go on and on about Troy but I'm afraid I might not stop.

We celebrate you today Troy,

Thank you for sharing you with us, through your writing.

4) Khadija Abdalla Bajaber - The House of Rust

'Wider recognition is valuable, but this can never be more precious to me than seeing Kenyans read Kenyans.'- Khadija

These words should be enough, but they aren't.

It is important that I share with you, especially you going through writers block; The Elephant technique, that I learnt from Khadija;

'Whenever I begin to wonder and wander in my writing, hesitating on how to go about a thing I just write ELEPHANT and move on, that way I could come back to it later'

A beautiful girl, with a calm demeanour and a way with words, only I could dream of having, is the author of Award Winning 'The House of Rust ' set in Mombasa and available on Amazon here.

*5) Michelle K Angwenyi -**Grey Latitudes*,

'I don't know'

Is a word I like to hear, because it evokes what seems to be a regular feeling for many of us.

In her interviews, Michelle easily says 'I don't know', where many of us would insert jargon and PR language, myself included. She does this as if to say; 'It's okay not to know'

We celebrate her diversity today; In that she understands that she can be a poet and explore her love of animals through her pursuit of studying Zoology

She has a chapbook, Grey Latitudes, which is out from the African Poetry Book Fund and Akashic Books.

6) Alexis Teyie - Clay Plates

The song 'I'm not here by Me + T" singing in the background as I write this.

It matches so sadly and beautifully with the words Iiving through her interviews.

When asked how she came about to write her poetry book. She says;

I’ve been writing this book all my life, in that so many instances coalesced into that tiny figurine. Most of my writing is a way to connect with my father, and my sister—both dead. I’m saying, as my father did in a poem he made: stay a while, sing me a song. I suppose I’m trying to bribe death in a way?

As an avid lover of Swahili; She has published a poetry chapbook, Clay Plates: Broken Records of Kiswahili Proverbs (2016), through the African Poetry Book Fund and Akashic Books. Alexis also co-authored a children’s book, Shortcut (2015).