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An outline history of Nyanza up to 19...
History of Resistance in Kenya by Mai...
Brief Summary
This book is a contribution to an interpretation of the history of Kenya from the proletarian point of view.
The author has attempted to give the reader in a scientific and accessible form the most important and accurate information on the people of Kenya and their history of resistance.
ISBN:9781451504125
Author:Maina Wa Kinyatti
My footprints on the sands of time by...
While Allan Ogot's circuits of influence have been very wide, and while he has participated in conferences and forums around the world, he has never yielded his intellectual and personal anchorage in Kenya - though he has had numerous opportunities to accept distinguished chairs overseas.
Extraordinarily, Allan Ogot has sustained his incredible level of service and scholarship through shifting and challenging conditions within Kenya and within Africa, navigating changing economic and political circumstances.
His steady hand and persistent commitment to the highest ideals of scholarly engagement and community provide remarkable model for all who are dedicating themselves and will dedicate themselves to Africanist scholarship. This autobiography provides a commentary on the history of Kenya as seen through Allan Ogot's life experiences.
The Double Cross by Mwangi Gicheru
Mwakenya The Unfinished Revolution by...
Mwakenya: The Unfinished Revolution is a 440 page book divided into six parts after the Preface and Introduction. Part One deals with the birth of the Kenyan anti-imperialist underground move- ment in the mid-1970s around the time of the brutal and grisly murder of the populist parliamentarian JM Kariuki by assassins widely believed to be working at the behest of President Jomo Kenyatta.
Drawing its inspiration and legacy from the Mau Mau anti-imperialist struggle of the 1950s, the December Twelve Movement (DTM) derived its name from the date Kenya achieved its flag independence in actually the date when the freedom aspirations of Kenyans were betrayed and neocolonialism ushered in.
Maina informs his readers that DTM in turn was the child of the clandestine Workers' Party of Kenya. The fledgling underground movement took an anti-imperialist, pro-socialist stance--ideology anchored in Marxism-Leninism Maoist thought.
The rest of the sections are taken up by detailed narrative as well as a very frank analysis and critique of the later history of the movement when, according to Maina, it was taken over by what he refers to as "opportunist, sectarians and ultra-leftists" who later transformed it into Mwakenya with at first disastrous consequences.
The author chronicles the inner party debate, struggle and rectification, which later led to the expulsion of the "liquid- ationist Dar clique". It's worth reading and re-reading the Part One of the book because it appeared a distinct departure and a fresh gust of air from Maina's previous public views on Mwakenya--especially his last major work, "History of Resistance In Kenya, 1890-2002, where to many Kenyan leftists and observers outside the movement, Maina appeared to endorse some of Mwakenya's gregarious errors through silence.
In conclusion, Maina is one of Kenya's foremost historians, one of Kenya's prominent organic intellectuals, one of Kenya's Marxist scholars. He was abducted from Kenyatta University in 1982, interrogated, humiliated and tortured by Kenya's state agents before being hauled to a Kangaroo court on trumped up charges and later flung to dungeons of Kamiti and Naivasha penitentiaries. He was released in 1988.
The Cape Cod Bicycle War and Other St...
The Cape Cod Bicycle War explores the wild promises of city life as seen for the first time; and its brutality once one has settled in. The author explores the lives of drunks and zealots, farmers and whistle-blowers, locals and migrants, rich and poor.
Kahora’s visceral writing style coupled with his typical urbane Kenyans, is not very different from his personality. The wry sense of humour in his stories came out during the book launch where he did a reading. He is unapologetically Kenyan in his description of personal experiences that also poked fun at society.
The short stories are sequenced in respective order of their setting in the history of the country.
The first story, We are Here Because We are Here, is a flashback to an era gone, in a rural setting as opposed to the rest of the stories in the collection which are set in a more urbane setting marked by excesses of indulgence, religion and the rat race.
The story serves as a primer to life in pre-colonial times juxtaposed with current life as narrated to a young man by his ailing grandfather. It tackles natural disasters like floods with a background story of how these disasters came about as a result of exploitation by the colonisers in the Scramble for Africa.
It has great historical depth, testament to Kahora's industriousness as a researcher. Set on the Coast of Kenya, it explores the history of the Pokomo community of Tana River County, who we learn hail from the Comoros. It also explores the flooding of the Tana River, which causes starvation and displacement of families.
Lieutenant General Daniel Opande In P...
Daniel Ishmael Opande is a retired Kenyan military officer, who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Kenyan Army and has had an illustrious career which included service in leadership positions in various UN peacekeeping mission.
Lieutenant-General Opande, was Kenya's Vice-Chief of General Staff following which he took over as the Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2003. Since November 2000, he has served with distinction as Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).
General Opande served as Deputy Force Commander with the United Nations Transitional Assistance Group in Namibia (UNTAG) from 1989 to 1990. He represented Kenya in the Mozambican peace process as a facilitator and negotiator between the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) and the Government of Mozambique from 1990 to 1993, and served as Chief Military Observer of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) from 1993 to 1995.
Lieutenant-General Opande is a graduate of Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot UK, where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1964. He has served as Commandant of the National Defence College, Kenya's highest military institution. General Opande is also a graduate of the British Army Staff College and the United States National Defense University.
A Brief Tour of the Buildings of Nair...
For anyone interested in learning about the history of architecture of Nairobi, this book provides a great overview of the city's most prominent buildings, whose histories span from the British Occupation to the modern era.
Foreword by Prof. Wangari Maathai.
Descriptions and color photographs of over 72 buildings in the Central Business District, Upper Hill and other areas. Includes maps, alphabetical index, chronological index and bibliography.
My Blood Not for Sale by Muthoni Liki...
Brief Summary
Muthoni Likimani’s latest book, My Blood Not for Sale, is a blistering indictment of the scourge of human trafficking in modern times.
It evokes feelings of horror at the various manifestations of modern slavery, which essentially re-enacts the heart-wrenching ordeal that Sarah Baarman underwent in the 19th century.
The story of the Southern African woman Sarah Baartman, exported to Europe for public display, is one of the most horrendous instances of human trafficking.
The sad story typifies the perpetual victimhood of people of African descent from antiquity to modernity. Sarah Baartman, of Khoikhoi or Hottentot origin, was lured with false promises of prosperity and plucked from her ancestral home in South Africa in 1810 and shipped to England, where she was put on display in freak shows. Why? Her physical features piqued the European gaze and earned her the tag Hottentont Venus, because in the European imagination, she was very unlike the women of the civilized Western world. She was displayed on stage in a cage in shows that earned her European captors a colossal amount of money.
She was a slave. All efforts to have her released from the hands of her inhuman and inhumane captors fell flat. She would later be moved to France, where she was made an object of medical and scientific research to satiate a curious European fascination with African female sexuality.
But the Hottentot Venus remained a slave in life and death as well. Upon her death, her genitalia, skeleton and brain were put on display in a museum.
Kenya: A Prison Notebook by Maina wa ...
Brief Summary
Maina wa Kinyatti is one of Kenya’s progressive historians. In June 1982, he was arrested by the Kenyan authoritarian regime, charged with possession of seditious literature and imprisoned.
He suffered for six-and-a-half years in the hands of his brutal captors. He was repeatedly held in solitary confinement and was constantly insulted and beaten.
He was tortured by vermin, untreated diseases, hunger and loneliness. But he remained defiant, his courage and spirit unbroken.
The illusion of power by GG Kariuki
The Illusion of Power: Reflections on Fifty Years in Kenya Politics.
Kariki's political participation dates from 1952, when he pledged an oath to the allegiance of the Gikuyu tribe, the Mau Mau movement and the cause of African unity. Post-independence, he gradually progressed to being a political insider, serving in the Kenyan African National Union (KANU) and the Kenyan Government. In 1983 he was expelled from KANU - the only political party.
It is from this outsider-perspective, and in this climate of fear and uncertainty, without the desired freedom of association and access to political colleagues of the period of struggle, that he nevertheless here recounts his experiences of half a century in politics.
He holds the belief that political evolution is inexorable; and that knowledge about, and reflection on the past is the only way of preventing the tragedy of yet another generation repeating that which they condemned in their predecessors.
Unsettled Denial and Belonging Among ...
"In 1963, Kenya gained independence from Britain, ending nearly seventy years of white colonial rule. While tens of thousands of whites relocated outside Kenya for what they hoped would be better prospects, many stayed. Over the past decade, however, protests, scandals, and upheavals have unsettled families with colonial origins, reminding them of the tenuousness of their Kenyan identity. In this book, Janet McIntosh looks at the lives and dilemmas of settler descendants living in post-independence Kenya.
From clinging to a lost colonial identity to embracing a new Kenyan nationality, the public face of white Kenyans has undergone changes fraught with ambiguity. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, McIntosh focuses on their discourses and narratives, asking: What stories do settler descendants tell about their claims to belong in Kenya? How do they situate themselves vis-a-vis the colonial past and anticolonial sentiment, phrasing and rephrasing their memories and judgments as they seek a position they feel is ethically acceptable?
With her respondents straining to defend their entitlements in the face of mounting Kenyan rhetorics of ancestry and autochthony, McIntosh explores their contradictory and diverse responses: moral double consciousness, aspirations to uplift the nation, ideological blind spots, denial, and self-doubt. Ranging from land rights to language, from romantic intimacy to the African occult, Unsettled offers a unique perspective on whiteness in a postcolonial context and a groundbreaking theory of elite subjectivity
A Railway to Nowhere The Building of ...
Mervyn Hill made a significant contribution to East African studies in his history of the Kenya and Uganda Railway from its conception to the creation of East African Railways and Harbours in 1948. Commissioned in 1942 as a 'plain story' of 'the development of the railway' and published in 1949, 'Permanent Way' has long proved a boon to those interested in the history of Kenya and Uganda.
Hill was however at a great disadvantage when writing the official history, most notably because the operation of the 50-year rule prevented him from consulting official documents in the Public Record Office and elsewhere, with the result that he was largely dependent on material published in Parliamentary Command papers.
Two other serious drawbacks were that war conditions restricted his sources to published works and other material available in East Africa at the time and that many of the books and articles which authors now have access to had yet to be written. The Railway to Nowhere does not suffer from these disadvantages and provides a well-researched, authoritative account coupled with a pictorial appreciation of the construction of the railway in the early years of its operation.
There is no doubt that the construction of the railway was a triumph of human endeavour and resolution over the most daunting obstacles and setbacks: the vision and tenacity of the British government in the face of parliamentary, press and Treasury opposition and criticism; the steadfast leadership of Sir George Whitehouse in coping with an often querulous Foreign Office Committee, and overcoming a series of administrative engineering and personal problems; the inventiveness and skill of surveyor engineers when tackling exceptional professional challenges and the hardiness shown by the working gangs, of all races, in carrying on under adverse conditions of climate and terrain.
Southern Kikuyu Before 1903 Volume 1,...
This is a Limited Second Edition, reprint of the three volume book The Southern Kikuyu- before 1903.
One of the often unnoticed tragedies of an era of technological advance and improving communications is the passing from living memory of customs, language and beliefs as small insular pockets of culture are overtaken by the sweep of civilization.
This impressive book is a complete record of the ways of the Kikuyu people, before and during the period of European influence which accompanied road and railway building and political and economic changes in the late 19th Century. It is the major anthropological achievement of the late L.S.B. Leakey and the culmination of his life-long study of the people among whom he was born and raised. Written in the graceful, readable style characteristic of scholarship in the thirties, it draws on the memories of the Elders whose confidant Dr. Leakey became.
A once rich source of tradition and culture, passed on intact from generation to generation, was in danger of drying up without trace – this study, revised and published now, some forty years after it was first undertaken, will secure this fascinating collection of information for posterity now that all the last inheritors of the old Kikuyu way of life are dead.
Thanks to Dr. Leakey, and to the collaborators who worked on the manuscript after his death, the Kikuyu mores have been set down – from descriptions of the daily activities of the people, digging, planting, harvesting, care of animals, trading, marriage, tribal raiding, dancing and lawgiving, to the customs connected with sex, linked with rites de passage, religious beliefs, magic and medicine. It is a picture of a successful self-regulating community, in which a strict set of rules and punishments established order and enabled the tribe to survive within its environment.
The autonomy of tribal life all over the world is now being eroded, for better or worse. But this well-rounded study, intricate in its mass of detail, yet straightforward in approach, seeks to make no assertions or comparisons with other cultures. It will thus be an important unbiased primary source for social anthropologists, ethnologists and social scientists, as well as being of great value to all those interested in Africa and its history.
The jail bugs by Wahome Mutahi
Its Our Turn to Eat by Michela Wrong
It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower.
When Michela Wrong's Kenyan friend John Githongo appeared one morning on the doorstep of her London flat, it was clear something had gone very wrong in a country regarded until then as one of Africa's few budding success stories.
John's tale is the story of how a brave man came to make a lonely decision with huge ramifications.
An Artist of the Floating World by Ka...
In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into World War II.
Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the "floating world”—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise.
Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.
A Textbook on Tax Law in Kenya by Dr ...
The publication’s academic bent makes it an ideal reference manual for advocates, accountants, tax agents, tax consultants and other professionals interacting with tax matters.
Indeed, any professional pursuing a career in tax, including decision-makers, judges, magistrates and Tax Tribunals will find A Text Book on Tax Law in Kenya a useful — if not indispensable — handbook. In it there are numerous examples and references of the tax law in Kenya, and the tax jurisprudence emanating from Kenyan courts and the Tax Appeal Tribunal.
The book is also a handy companion for business owners or any other person seeking to sharpen his or her skills and knowledge of Kenya’s tax law. The 426-page treatise is divided into 18 chapters.
That Dr Kimani is also an advocate of the High Court, a KRA Tax Agent and a certified accountant among others, easily speaks for itself in the book.
The tax expert has quoted substantially from jurisprudence, case studies, and technical documents on his chosen topics. In addition, the book has a rich bibliography on tax matters, making it a tremendously authoritative publication.
Although the book may seem intimidating on first impression, readers will find it well designed and easy to read. The usability is fantastic. However, readers must appreciate that there is a level of language and detail below which some topics may lose their essence if they are simplified further.
The author has gone out of his way to break down every complicated concept he handles by using sections and subsections. He’s thorough in his research and explanations and it helps that he ends each chapter with a conclusion of the main topic.
One of Kenya’s more seasoned accountants, former Finance minister Amos Kimunya, notes that the book "provides a much-needed relief to tax practitioners, tax administrators, tax payers, researchers as well as students by providing a one-stop reference point on the latest developments in taxation law and practice in Kenya”.
The Kenyatta Succession by Joseph Kar...
The Kenyatta Succession by Joseph Karimi & Philip Ochieng
On the day Mzee Jomo Kenyatta died at Mombasa State House, Coast provincial intelligence officer Bart Kibati received a phone call from the PC Eliud Mahihu.
The administrator relayed the sad news to the sleuth and then went ahead to ask him to look for a coffin in which they would transport the head of state’s body to Nairobi. A Kenya Air Force plane was on standby.
Kibati, well aware that if he was seen buying a coffin tongues would start wagging, decided to pull a trick out of his cloak and dagger trade’s rule book. He bought not only one but three coffin - including one for a child for a good measure.
The retired spy chief reveals in his tell-all biography ‘Memoirs of a Spymaster’ that this was not the first time he was involving himself in subterfuge following a high profile death.
Just under a decade earlier he was the provincial director of intelligence when the celebrated Cabinet minister Tom Mboya was assassinated. On the day Mboya’s body was passing through Nakuru, Kibati came up with a hearse decoy.
