Joseph Ngunjiri
1 October 2007
Nairobi — Writers from East African Educational Publishers took home five prizes during this year's Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature awards ceremony at the Sarit Centre on Saturday night.
A Farm Called Kishinev by veteran writer Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye won the top prize in the Adult English fiction category.
This is the first major literary prize for that Macgoye has won in Kenya.
Dr Kyalo Wamitila, a Kiswahili scholar at the University of Nairobi, won the top prize in the Kiswahili adult fiction category with his book, Musimu wa Vipepeo (A Season of Buterflies) published by his company Vide-Muwa Publishers.
The ceremony marked the climax of the tenth Nairobi International Book Fair, which started on Wednesday last week.
Kingwa Kamencu's To Grasp at a Star (EAEP) was voted the best in the youth category for books written in English. In the Kiswahili category, the judges could not find a winner but the second position went to Mwenda Mbatia's book, Migogoro.
In the children's English category, The Wonderful Boat, by Kabaru Ndegwa, won the overall prize, while Nyambura Mpesha's Hanna na Wanyama, (Phoenix Publishers) won in the Kiswahili category.
Macgoye's book beat Place of Destiny (Paulines Publications Africa) by Margaret Ogola, which took second position.
Dr Ogola is best known for her book, The River and the Source, (Focus Publishers) which won both the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature and Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa in 1995.
Business Daily writer Wanjiru Waithaka, took third position with her book The Unbroken Spirit (EAEP).
Kizuizini written by 79-year-old Joseph Muthee and published by the Kwani Trust, took the second prize in the Kiswahili adult category, while Sudana, written by Prof Kimani Njogu and Al Amin Mazrui was third.
Former NTV newscaster Ken Walibora's book Innocence Long Lost (Sasa Sema Publications) took the second position in the English Youth category. The third position went to seasoned writer Meja Mwangi's book The Boy Gift (EAEP).
Second position
Dr Wamitila won another prize when his book The Mysterious Box in the Magic Spoon (Vide-Muwa) took the second position in the English Children's category.
Nyambura Mpesha's Far Far Away (Phoenix) took the third prize.
The Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, awarded every two years, is the biggest and most prestigious literary award in the country.
During the event, the main sponsor of the award, Text Book Centre, donated Sh600,000 to boost the award kitty.
Speaking on behalf of the judges panel, Prof Emilia Ilieva, said the quality of creative writing in Kenya had gone up. However, she urged publishers to invest in editors to improve the quality of the language. She also said there was need to improve book designs.
For the first time, several publishers launched e-books and Internet based systems for selling and delivering books.
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