Emmanuel Muchui, an author and avid reader, has embarked on a 73‑hour reading marathon in Nairobi to draw attention to Kenya’s declining reading culture. The challenge began at 10:51 a.m. on Friday at Nuria Book Store and is scheduled to end at 3:51 p.m. on Monday, marking a first‑of‑its‑kind endurance reading attempt hosted in Kenya.
Store owners at Nuria said Muchui is not chasing the global benchmark of 215 hours set by Nigeria’s Samson Ajao in May 2024, but is instead focused on a simpler, more urgent mission of raising awareness about reading in a country where screen time increasingly surpusses book time.
“Emmanuel’s main aim of the challenge is to holistically create awareness on reading in Kenya, bearing in mind that as a country we have a very poor reading culture,” the bookshop owner said as quoted by one of the local news outlets.
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The marathon allows Muchui structured breaks totaling one hour and 15 minutes, during which he stretches, eats, and rests before returning to his books. Preparation took about a month, with the author carefully curating the titles he plans to read across the three‑day effort.
Kenya has seen notable reading initiatives in recent years, including a 2024 mass read‑aloud event that brought together 300,000 students in a bid to surpass America’s Walden Media record of 233,363 people reading simultaneously. Individual endurance attempts, such as Nigeria’s Kenedy Yinefawa’s 160‑hour goal, reflect growing interest across the region, though many remain local efforts without global recognition or formal verification.
By Masaki Enock
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