Category: People
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I Used To Loathe Book Clubs. But Now I’m Hooked.
If two years ago you’d have asked me whether I’d join a book club, your ears would likely be met with an endless rant about the pretentious nature of the reading clubs, the dreariness of the literature class-esque discussions therein, or how not every book needs deconstruction, that one can simply read for the sheer…
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Why ‘Njaanuary’ Was Good For Your Health
The apartment block on State House Road in Milimani doesn’t just appear. It unfolds, slowly, revealing the prototypical colonial architecture; walls made of hand-carved stone, clay roofing tiles and large windows with wooden frames. Past the wicket gate, tiny blocks line the pathway to a parking lot on one side, and on the other, lush…
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From Kakamega High With Love
I don’t remember how it all started, but all I know is that by the second term in Form One, I was Kakamega High School’s high priest of romance. A word charmer. A paper contortionist of matters sensual. A lovesmith hammering out lines on an anvil. My task was simple. For a quarter of a…
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Loving My Father After Heartbreak
A week earlier, everything was business as usual between him and I. It would be wrong to say that everything was fine because things were never truly fine. I had met him at my best friend’s birthday dinner where he sat in his blue coat and khaki pants and told loud stories that I could…
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Seven Stories Of Dating Across Seven Decades
L.O.V.E. The four letters of character development. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. But how does dating and infatuation change with the times? Is the passion my parents experienced in the 80s, before the advent of DMs and Instagram stories, the same infatuation Gen Z experience? This is an exploration of dating in Kenya through…
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An Ode To The GoDown Arts Centre
The old GoDown Arts Centre on Dunga Road was a den. A lair. You walked in and were hit smack in the face with the powerful creative forces curling and uncoiling like a slow python on a river bank, with something twisting inside its belly. A creative mchuzi mix energy was coalescing in that crumbling…
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Debunk Speaks To Joseph Kamaru-KMRU
This interview is one of a series where CHIA KAYANDA sits down with globally recognized Kenyan artists who have found success away from home yet tend to go rather underrecognized here, in Kenya. It is 8 p.m. in Nairobi and 6 p.m. in Berlin, where KMRU has been based for the past 3 years as…
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My Hustler Fund Experience
Long before the launch of the Hustler Fund on 30 November 2022, I already knew I wanted to test the Fund out. I was particularly drawn to the experiment for two reasons; the Fund had been making headlines during the campaigns and after the August 9 polls. The Fund (not loan) that served as an…
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Debunk Speaks To Rose Lukalo
ROSE LUKALO is a seasoned journalist with experience in print, broadcast and digital media. She began her career in journalism in the late 1980s when being a free-thinking journalist or creative in Kenya was hazardous, if not life-threatening. Rose advocates for free expression, media diversity and inclusion, and has served as the Chairperson of the…
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Debunk Speaks To Angi Yoder-Maina
Mental health issues are increasingly coming to the fore as the world faces increasing uncertainty about the future. However, an increasing number of mental health practitioners understand that drugs or psychotherapy are not sufficient – or even desirable – to treat people and societies dealing with traumatic events, whether they be wars or the effects…