Dear Nairobi Publishers Respect Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s Rights To Royalties In “kintu.”

It is now evident that publishers and book distributors in Nairobi are fraudulently selling to the unsuspecting public the Edition of Kintu by the Ugandan writer, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi published by Kwani Trust even though Kwani Trust does not have rights to publish and distribute this book. This heinous practice has gone to rampart stage because of popularity of the writer. Makumbi is now acclaimed in Europe and in Africa as well as America for her talent to write lucidly and in aa very engaging style. is advising readers against buying the edition of Kintu first produced by Kwani Trust.

Nairobi Publishers and book dealers are taking advantage of Makumbi’s book because she first came to continental fame in the literary community when she entered and won the Nairobi based Kwani Manuscript Prize in 2013. According to James Murua, also a writer and a literary blogger, Part of the reward for winning this prize was that her manuscript then called The Kintu Saga was to be published. When the book came out a year later under the Kwani Trust label it was titled Kintu. This was when Makumbi got established as a novelist and a leading literary name from East Africa. James Murua also notes that since then Makumbi has since gone on to fame and fortune with other books like the short story collection Manchester Happened and the novel The First Woman. After winning the Kwani Prize, Makumbi withdrew the rights for the novel which and sold the distribution rights to One world publishers, as the sole distributer of Kintu in the Commonwealth Africa.

But recently, in December 2019 Makumbi came across very many copies of Kwani issue Kintu which Kwani stopped printing in 2016 supplied to the reading by the book distributors in Nairobi. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is now seeking legal redress, but she has asked her readers to stop buying the pirated edition of Kintu distributed by Kwani Trust , but instead the reader has to buy the editions distributed by Oneworld publishers.

Alexander Opicho writes from Lodwar, Kenya - [email protected]