Maina wa Kinyatti is a Kenyan

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

historian and former political prisoner under Daniel arap Moi's dictatorship. He is considered the foremost researcher on the Mau Mau in Kenya, one of the primary reasons that Kinyatti was arrested and imprisoned. After being released from prison on 17 October 1988 (after serving six and a half years, mostly in solitary confinement), he fled the country to

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

, fearing a re-arrest by Moi's government. After a month in Dar es Salaam, Kinyatti was forced to apply for political asylum in the US. Kinyatti was awarded the

PEN Freedom to Write Award A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity whic ...

in 1988.

References

Bibliography

* Thunder from the Mountains: Poems and Songs from the Mau Mau * Mau Mau: A Revolution Betrayed * Kenya's Freedom Struggle: The Dedan Kimathi Papers * Kenya: A Prison Notebook * Mother Kenya: Letters From Prison 1982–1988 * A Season of Blood: Poems from Kenyan prisons {{DEFAULTSORT:Kinyatti, Maina Wa Kenyan prisoners and detainees Kenyan Marxists Living people Kenyan historians 20th-century Kenyan writers Year of birth missing (living people)