Kenya the Beloved


Book Description

Kenya the Beloved is a book written with love. The book is about one man’s love for his country, Kenya.It is about his vision and desire to see justice, peace and freedom in his country. In this book, the author, (Job Ombati) tries to remind his fellow countrymen where they have come from. He tries to tell a story of their conquest of injustice and their development and progress that they made since independence. As he takes you from the ‘The Day Before’, he shows you how peaceful the country was before the arrival of the colonialist. The book describes well how Kenyan people fought the colonialist and won their freedom. It tells who was who and how they participated in the struggle. Kenya The Beloved tells how white men came to Kenya as missionaries (Visitors) and turned to be colonialists. It tells how hospitable Kenyans were to have welcomed the Visitors, without knowing their hidden agenda. After realizing that the Visitors had ill-motives, the Africans united against him and started a revolt. This revolt did not take one face, as many might think. It took different people with different approaches to dismantle colonialism completely from Kenya. This is an important point that the book raises because many other books have been written pointing to only one movement called Mau-mau as being the only revolt that was used to oust colonialists. Kenya the Beloved says that that is not entirely true. The book also tells what was at stake and why the Africans of Kenya had to fight. In wildlife, the book tells that animals in Kenya were plenty and beautiful before and after the colonialists. He then tells how even these animals fought for freedom like every other Kenyan. The book illustrates how well and peaceful the country was before December 27, 2007 when it says ‘things fell apart’. Job does not leave you there stranded as to what to do next, he gives you hope. Job tells how things can be turned around for the better of all the people. He says that even though things have gone terribly wrong, people can still rise and mend fences for the future generation. Above all, this book is an historical account, of some events and freedom struggle for the people of Kenya. This is a book of hope. It is a book that tells vividly the way some people think and the practical way of solving our many problems in the world. Reading this book raises one’s hope and inspires action for the common good of all humanity. Job Ombati believes that if all men can think positive, if all men can start acting with love of one another, the world will be a better place for all to live in. It is with such kind of thinking that he wrote this small book, Kenya The Beloved. It will challenge and inspire you to the end.




Death in Kenya


Book Description

Written by celebrated author M. M. Kaye, Death in Kenya is a wonderfully evocative mystery... When Victoria Caryll is offered a position at Flamingo, her aunt's family estate in Kenya's Rift Valley, she accepts-knowing full well that the move will give her a chance to see Eden DeBrett once again, the man she was previously engaged to. But she doesn't realize that coming to her aunt's home will introduce her to an unstable region still recovering from the bloody Mau Mau revolt, and to a household thrown into grief by a recent murder. Distinguished by its mystery, romance, and exotic setting, Death in Kenya is as graceful as it is chilling-it is the beloved novel of one of our finest and most accomplished writers.




The In-Between World of Vikram Lall


Book Description

Giller Prize-winner M.G. Vassanji’s The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a haunting novel of corruption and regret that brings to life the complexity and turbulence of Kenyan society in the last five decades. Rich in sensuous detail and historical insight, this is a powerful story of passionate betrayals and political violence, racial tension and the strictures of tradition, told in elegant, assured prose. The novel begins in 1953, with eight-year-old Vikram Lall a witness to the celebrations around the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, just as the Mau Mau guerilla war for independence from Britain begins to gain strength. In a land torn apart by idealism, doubt, political upheaval and terrible acts of violence, Vic and his sister Deepa must find their place among a new generation. Neither colonists nor African, neither white nor black, the Indian brother and sister find themselves somewhere in between in their band of playmates: Bill and Annie, British children, and Njoroge, an African boy. These are the relationships that will shape the rest of their lives. We follow Vikram through the changes in East African society, the immense promise of the fifties and sixties. But when that hope is betrayed by the corruption and violence of the following decades, Vic is drawn into the Kenyatta government’s orbit of graft and power-broking. Njoroge, his childhood friend, can abandon neither the idealism of his youth nor his love for Vic’s sister Deepa. But neither the idealism of the one nor the passive cynicism of the other can avert the tragedies that await them. The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a profound and careful examination of one man’s search for his place in the world, with themes that have run through Vassanji’s work: the nature of community in a volatile society, the relations between colony and colonizer, and the inescapable presence of the past. It is also, finally, a deeply personal book speaking to the people who are in the in-between.




Nairobi Noir


Book Description

In this anthology, fourteen authors explore dark mysteries in the concrete jungle capital of Kenya, dealing with topics of race, religion, and corruption. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Brand-new stories by: Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Stanley Gazemba, Ngumi Kibera, Peter Kimani, Winfred Kiunga, Kinyanjui Kombani, Caroline Mose, Kevin Mwachiro, Wanjiku wa Ngugi, Faith Oneya, Makena Onjerika, Troy Onyango, J.E. Sibi-Okumu, and Rasna Warah. Praise for Nairobi Noir “Nairobi Noir takes readers into the enigmas that haunt Kenya’s most populous city through the deft storytelling of a stellar cast of writers, which includes Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Stanley Gazemba, Makena Onjerika, Troy Onyango, and others.” —Brittle Paper, One of 50 Notable African Books of 2020 “Nairobi is a city of 3 million souls, so it makes sense as a setting Akashic Books’ famed noir series. 14 new stories fill a collection with Nairobi old and new; authors range in age from 24 to 81, and many layers of the city and its complex subcultures will be revealed as the reader makes their way through. Perfect for the armchair traveler!” —CrimeReads, included in CrimeReads’ Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020 “Crime fiction fans have much to savor.” —Publishers Weekly




Conned by a Fake Kenyan President


Book Description

Violence, separation, mums death, destitution, early marriage, husband death, HIV stigma and widowhood, Th ese adversities have birthed a diversity of eff ects such as endurance and resilience that even death wont silence. consequently, the dare of this audacious fellow citizen counterfeiting my president is a life setup, I know. the con may have done it over and over in the past, but the privilege and thoroughness of the experiences as mentioned above have amplifi ed my voice to stand and speak out for a generation which the gods mute. In truth, I am set free indeed to know that its louder in the tomb. Inside these pages is its nakedness. Th e real conversations as is with a fake Kenyan President who conned me hundreds of thousands by impersonating President Uhuru Kenyatta in the name of helping to build a youth centre, a goal I had shared. How much deeper can we as a nation Plunge?




If Only One


Book Description

Our Lord said, "Go and make disciples of all nations." In 1995, He told me to "go to Kenya, East Africa and make those disciples." What I found was millions of natives needing to hear about Jesus Christ. I thought that I was going to do some great work and maybe even stay and be a career missionary. Boy, was I wrong! I didn't know it then, but when I got back to North Carolina, I realized my future calling. I was to take teams back to Kenya and let the Lord change the lives of not only the natives, but the missionaries themselves, and that's what happened. We've seen thousands ask Jesus into their hearts. Some of whom are over one hundred years old, and some who had never seen a white man or woman, or heard the Word of God. What a feeling to see someone give their life to Jesus so close to eternity.







Kenya


Book Description




(Re)membering Kenya Vol 1


Book Description

One of the critical questions that Kenyans have continuously asked is what went wrong in January and February 2008 with the peace they had hitherto enjoyed. There have not been readily available answers to this fundamental question. The collection of papers presented in this book attempt to provide, as a starting point, possible explanations for the events of early 2008 including key background issues in Kenyan history since pre-independence times. Based on a series of public lectures titled (Re)membering Kenya organized by the volume editors together with Twaweza Communications and sponsored by the Goethe-Institut Kenya, the Institute for International Education and The Ford Foundation the lecture series became a way of trying to get scholars to engage meaningfully with the Kenyan public on critical matters pertaining to their nationhoodeven if this entailed first calling to question the lie about the very ideas and practices upon which that nationhood is assumed to stand. A key lesson drawn from the unfolding discussions at the Goethe-Institut Kenya was that the 2007 elections debacle was merely the cusp of momentous crises to do with among other issues, governance, law and order, Parliaments abdication of its role in ensuring accountability from the Executive, dilemmas of identity and socio-economic marginality. The book is the first of three volumes under the (Re)membering Kenya series whose overall objective is to cast some new light on the various trajectories that informed the happenings of January 2008. The present volume brings together some of the best interpretative writing and suggestions on pertinent questions, past and present, ranging from the architecture of Kenyas ethnicity, Kenyanness, generational competition, socialization and violence, iconic representations of identity to the ongoing debate on the efficacy of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). It is hoped that the issues debated during the public lectures and documented herein will spur further discussions in other spaces within civil society organizations, among activists and in newspapers where the public might continue to expand their thinking on the complex task of (Re)membering Kenya.




Olga in Kenya


Book Description

Some people achieve far more than their time on earth should allow, making a real difference to many, yet unrecognised by most.Olga Baillie-Grohman is one such person. The summary of her life reads as an extraordinary catalogue of events ? born in Austria within hours of Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin, she married a Kenyan soldier-settler and was recruited to British Intelligence work. Her second marriage to a senior Government official enabled her to fulfil many missions in life - elected as the first female member of the Nairobi City Council followed by the Kenyan Legislative Council, Olga used her standing to advance better urban housing for African's, education for the continents women and as a representative to the smaller coffee farmers. Olga?s story is one that should not be forgotten as it is a guiding light for putting the world to rights and an inspiration to others.