Novelist Meja Mwangi.[Courtesy] Meja Mwangi (real name David Dominic Mwangi), who died last Thursday aged 78, was no ordinary writer. He shunned publicity, choosing obscurity over the glare of the media spotlight and deliberately set himself apart from many of his literary contemporaries through a sustained commitment to “common man” stories. His rich oeuvre, featuring works such as Kill Me Quick (1974), Going Down River Road (1976), The Cockroach Dance (1979), Weapons of Hunger (1989) and The Last Plague (2000), depicted life as lived by ordinary people in rural and urban Kenya. His narratives were rooted in the years following Independence in…
Author: By Mulango Baraza
Veteran writer and thespian David Mulwa, who died on December 5 aged 80.[FILE,Standard] Veteran writer and thespian David Mulwa, who died on December 5 aged 80, was, no doubt, a true colossus of Kenyan literature. Not only was he a teacher under whose watch many of Kenya’s leading writers—and editors— honed their craft, but he was also an immensely gifted writer and award-winning actor whose work and roles made a lasting mark on the country’s literary, theatrical and cinematic landscapes. His death, following those of Athol Fugard (South Africa), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenya), Morabo Morojele (Lesotho), Sonallah…
Prof Igara Kabaji promotes the culture of reading among the young. [Egara Kabaji] I’m writing in response to Prof Egara Kabaji’s article titled “Sorry state of our creativity and crisis of shrinking minds” (‘The Saturday Standard’, November 29, 2025). In the article, Prof Kabaji began by referencing an event co-organised and hosted by Daystar University in August this year. where creative writers met to discuss, among other things, the importance of having, and belonging to, such collectives as the Creative Writers Association of Kenya (C-WAK). I should, perhaps, mention that I attended the aforesaid event and agree with Prof Kabaji’s representation not…
Police use water cannons to disperse protestors in Nairobi, on June 25, 2025. [Collins Oduor, Standard] The order to stop the live coverage and the subsequent switching off TV stations by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) during the nationwide demos this last Wednesday saw the final relegation of Kenya to a place among the least democratic nations of the world. Thanks to recent actions by the William Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza regime, our country, which has one of the world’s most progressive constitutions 15 years ago, and which offers refuge to those fleeing persecution by authoritarian governments, is no longer…
President William Ruto. [PCS] The order to stop the live coverage and the subsequent switching off TV stations by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) during the nationwide demos this last Wednesday saw the final relegation of Kenya to a place among the least democratic nations of the world. Thanks to recent actions by the William Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza regime, our country, which has one of the world’s most progressive constitutions 15 years ago, and which offers refuge to those fleeing persecution by authoritarian governments, is no longer the bastion of democracy in the region. State-sanctioned rights violations, including…