Peter Kimani is a columnist with the Daily Nation in Nairobi.

Recent articles

China makes the world go round. But from Beijing to Nairobi there is turmoil beneath the skin-deep harmony, says Peter Kimani.

Kenya is tottering on the precipice as post-election violence rocks different parts of the country, in what the Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai calls “ethnic cleansing.” But were the pogroms prefigured by Kenya’s political elite long before the first ballot was cast?

The young Kenyans who debate topical issues in Nairobi’s informal “people’s parliament” are being arrested and beaten, reports Peter Kimani.

Peter Kimani’s first novel, “Before the Rooster Crows”, is a harrowing tale of a young man’s odyssey from a small Kenyan village to the big city – on a mission to find his childhood sweetheart. The search unfurls the complicated city life where prostitution, murder, racism and the deep wounds of colonialism still fester. openDemocracy presents an exclusive extract.

After forty years of independence and rule by a single party, the Kenyan people have made history by electing their third president from the opposition ranks. A moment of hope, celebration – and farewell.