STORYMOJA

Did you miss the Storymoja Hay Festival? Chris Lyimo tells you what the experience was like forhim in this report of all three days that he was at the SHFK.

Organizing a 3-day literary festival for the first time is a very difficult thing but it is more difficult if you have never attended such an event.

Its rather chilly – its July anyway – and there are not that many people on the opening day, maybe due to the fact that it is a weekday. I am sure place will be teeming with humanity today and tomorrow, what with all the hype and publicity that has surrounded the event.

What a joy it was to find that not only did the festival fulfill all my expectations but that all the authors I meet were super encouraging. I left the festival with ideas streaming out of my ears and feeling very positive about the potential of being a writer at this moment of time in Kenya, despite the hurdles.

This was one of the last activities. We opened with a very interesting topic “How does your sexuality change as you grow older?” Very interesting insights from the audience…

Nonetheless, the StoryMoja Hay festival was a rare treat. Different cultures, films, books, stories, drama, IT…what more could we have asked for?

Aly-Khan Satchu, author of the provocatively titled bestseller, Anyone Can Be Rich, leads this session on the investment opportunities offered by the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

If you were HIV-positive, would you go ahead and have a child? Asunta Wangura did and told the world about it in her Nation newspaper column that inspires thousands. Come listen to her amazing story of how she has dealt with the harrowing stigma of living with HIV. A leading health activist, Ms. Wangura is the founder and director of one of the oldest HIV advocacy groups in Kenya, KENWA. She will be interviewed by Kingwa Kamencu, author of “To Grasp a Star” and soon-to-be Rhodes Scholar.

Honourable Minister Mohamed Haroun Kafi, Sudanese writer and Diplomat will be at the Storymoja Hay Festival with his daughter Ludia Shima Haroun.

Always gripping, often terrifying, and occasionally inspirational, the Kenyan prison memoir is one of the country’s most controversial literary forms. Today, three formerly imprisoned writers come together to discuss their experiences and their writing.