The Department of Comparative Studies mourns the death of one of its Ph.D. graduates, Ken Walibora Waliaula (1964-2020) in Nairobi, Kenya, at age 56. Tragically, Ken was struck by a matatu, a 52-seater bus, at a busy intersection in Nairobi, on the morning of April 10, 2020, and died from his injuries. A renowned author of novels, short stories, and translations, throughout his life Ken was also a prominent journalist and news anchor, a radio show host, and a widely recognized public intellectual.

From 2005 to 2009, Ken attended The Ohio State University, where he was an energetic, articulate, and learned graduate student. In 2006 he was awarded an MA in the Department of African and African American Studies for his thesis contrasting Kenyan prison writings produced in English (the colonially imposed language) and the Swahili vernacular of Kenya (represented by the work of Abdilatif Abdalla). Professor Kwaku Korang, who was on Ken’s MA committee (2005-2006) in AAAS, recalls: “Walibora’s bringing together of the colonially bequeathed language and the vernacular in the same frame of analysis made a political statement. His gesture in making the Swahili writer Abdilatif Abdalla’s oeuvre rub shoulders with works by English-language writers is an unapologetic claim for parity between vernacular literacy and its Anglophone/Europhone counterpart. It is clear that he saw himself as part of a new Africanist consciousness seeking to redress a historic, cognitive, and cultural imbalance in African literary studies.”

Ken moved to the Department of Comparative Studies for his PhD work, where he was a teaching assistant and wrote his dissertation on “The Incarcerated Self: Narratives of Political Confinement in Kenya, supervised by professors Nina Berman and Adélékè Adéẹ̀kọ́. Professor Berman observes: “Kennedy Waliaula was gentle and soft-spoken, but also firm in his convictions and passionate about the things he cared about: raising the status of Kiswahili and advocating for free speech in Kenya. His years of working at Shimo la Tewa, a prison on the coast of Kenya, left a deep impression on him and inspired his interest in prison literature, which became the subject of his dissertation. I remember how deeply disturbed and unsettled he was about the violence that erupted in Kenya in the aftermath of the 2007 elections. He cared deeply about his country, and fully embraced his role as a public intellectual and advocate for Kiswahili.”

Professor Adéẹ̀kọ́ notes: “Ken Waliaula Walibora passes on. He was the first doctoral student I worked with closely when I got to Ohio over a decade ago. I used to needle him about not forgetting he is not on TV. He was always calm. Soft spoken. Remarkably sharp-minded. And he combined creative and critical intellect in the best ways. That a person like him chose to put his talents to use writing novels in Kiswahili and not English struck me. Well, at which time was death ever kind? May his loved ones be comforted. May Ken's spirit gain a restful home."

After completing his PhD, Ken became an Assistant Professor of African Languages at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2013, he returned to Kenya and took up a prestigious position as Nation Media Group Quality Manager. Since 2018 he had also been a senior lecturer at Riara University in Kenya. Ken was a warm and gentle man with a gift for communicating and a passion for literature. Like esteemed Kenyan writer N’gugi Wa Thiongo, of whom he was a fan, Ken viewed writing as an act of public defiance. As a skilled linguist and passionate advocate for the Kiswahili language in Kenya, he believed that the legacy of linguistic hybridity rendered the experience of Africans most genuinely.

A prolific author who published over forty books, Ken wrote many language books that were widely used as textbooks in Kenyan secondary schools. Ken was also a storyteller renowned for novels such as Siku Njema. He was three times awarded the Jomo Kenyatta prize for Literature for books in Swahili: Ndoto ya Amerika (2003), Kisasi Hapana (2009) and Nasikia Sauti ya Mama (2015). In Ndoto ya Amerika, he warned those from the developing world about the pitfalls of relocating to western countries such as the United States, and praised the benefits of staying in Africa.

Ken’s death is deeply mourned throughout and beyond Kenya. We add our condolences and salute Ken Walibora for his distinguished achievements. May he rest in peace.

--Julia Watson, Professor Emerita of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University