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Ngugi: Kenya is on the right path


Literary icon Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong’o has said the country has registered “tremendous progress” in terms of rights and openness.

Prof Thiong’o, however, noted that Kenya was still fighting a battle against inequality 50 years since he wrote Weep not Child.

“The Kenyan dream must one day come true,” Prof Ngugi said, when he met Cord leader Raila Odinga in his Capitol Hill office in Nairobi on Tuesday.

“Despite the oppression of the past, I still travel the world on a Kenyan passport.”

For his part, Mr Odinga appealed to the government to find a way of recognizing surviving pre and post-independence heroes.

The ODM leader said prominent personalities, who “contributed to the development Kenyans are enjoying today, have been ignored by successive regimes”.

WEEP NOT CHILD

Prof Ngugi, who was accompanied by five of his children, is in the country for two weeks to mark the golden jubilee of his first post-independence novel, Weep not Child.

Several events are lined up to celebrate the work of one of Africa’s finest authors.

His five children have followed in his footsteps and are scaling the heights in the literary world.

“It is rare to have a father and his entire family turning into writers like the Ngugis have done. This is a global first,” Mr Odinga said.

He said freedom heroes, who had to flee Kenya to escape oppressive rule, deserve national honours in recognition of their contributions to the gains recorded in post-independent Kenya.

“Kenyan democracy is still advancing but we must accept that we have made tremendous gains over the time,” said the Cord leader.

This story first appeared in the Daily Nation