Jubilation as Nairobi International Book Fair resumes after long break

This year’s event, now in its 23rd edition, comes as a big relief for Kenyan publishers, as they did not hold book fairs in 2020 and 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are excited that we are holding a physical book Fair, in Nairobi, after being unable to do so the last 2 years owing to COVID-19 disruption,” explains Mary Maina, the chairperson of NIBF. “Publishers were hard hit by this disruption: sales plummeted, some industry players closed shop, staff were retrenched. However, most publishers demonstrated resilience and they are slowly and gallantly soldering on.”

Kiarie Kamau, the chairman of KPA says that the Nairobi International Book Fair is the regional marketplace for books, bringing together publishing professionals, authors, booksellers, print suppliers, media, and readers from Africa and around the world.

Kamau, who is also the managing director of East African Educational Publishers (EAEP), explains that it is the biggest Book Fair in this part of Africa.

“Perhaps the only one than come close is the Cairo International Book Fair,” he adds.

The theme for this year’s book fair is ‘Publishing for the New Era’. It is indeed a new era for publishers, who produce books used in schools. When he was being sworn in President William Ruto announced that he will form a taskforce to oversee changes in the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), currently in use in Kenyan schools.

Publishers are currently working on materials for Grade Seven.

“Publishers have continued to collaborate with the Ministry of Education to develop high quality books for the new Curriculum, CBC,” explains the KPA chairman.

“KPA enthusiastically welcomes President the president’s announcement that a taskforce to review CBC will be set up, in order to identify the teething implementation problems, fix them and strengthen the curriculum.”

He added that KPA is already preparing the Memorandum to be presented to the taskforce.

The highlight of the Fair is the Awarding of the Jomo Kenyatta/Wahome Mutahi Literary Prizes. Shortlisted writers include Prof Egara Kabaji, (A Journey of Becoming) of Masinde Muliro University, Kiswahili scholar, Prof Kithaka wa Mberia (Kwenzi Gizani).