The Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) is a publishing house and state corporation in Kenya founded in 1947. It is located in South-C off Popo Road in Nairobi.
History The Kenya Literature Bureau was initially established by the "East Africa governments (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda)"Henry Chakava, "Private enterprise publishing in Kenya: A long struggle for emancipation" , in: The Cottage by the Highway and Other Essays on Publishing: 25 Years of Logos, Brill, 2015, p. 32. Retrieved 10 May 2022 in 1947 as the East African Literature Bureau as an "offshoot" of the missionary-owned Ndia Kuu Press in order to publish books for the general public in Kiswahili, East African vernacular languages and English.Stanley Gazemba, African Publishing Minefields and the Woes of the African Writer , theelephant.info. Retrieved 10 May 2022. The Bureau's first director was Charles Granston Richards, who held that post for fifteen years.Keith Smith and Charles Richards, "Interview", The African Book Publishing Record, print: Volume 2 Issue 3, Walter de Gruyter, 1976; online: De Gruyter Saur, November 12, 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2010.Papers of Charles Granston Richards , archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
The regional status continued after independence with the establishment of the East African Community (EAC). In the early 1970s the Bureau published many pioneering anthologies of English-language poetry from East Africa: However, in 1977, the EAC collapsed and the reins of the bureau were transferred to the Kenyan Ministry of Education thereby making it a department under that ministry. In 1980, the KLB Act was passed by the Kenyan Parliament making it a state corporation—a status it holds to this day.
Book series Early Travellers in East AfricaEarly Travellers in East Africa (East African Literature Bureau; Kenya Literature Bureau) - Book Series List , publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
References
Further reading Shiraz Durrani, Never Be Silent: Publishing and Imperialism 1884-1963, Nairobi: Vita Books, 2006.
External links Kenya Literature Bureau - official website