As part of my traveling tales, in mid-July 2024, I travelled from the City in the Sun to the sultry shores of Nam Lolwe. It was the courtesy of Sir Vincent Omondi Mayienga — the Chief Principal Homa Bay Boys School. I dropped down there to train members of the Student Council on their integral role in relation to effective and efficient governance of the school.
Albeit, when I reached Homa Bay also known as Asego, because the town abuts on Asego Hills, the peripatetic speaker realised that he forgot to carry a heroic book he had bought for his fellow bibliophile. Actually, I had bought Robert Shemin’s unputdownable heroic book titled How Come that Idiot is Rich and I am Not? My friend Mayienga, who is a son of Gem Malanga in Siaya, is a ravenous reader and a spell-binding orator par excellence. He has a deeper understanding of the intimacy between reading and the delivery of phenomenal speeches.
While in Homa Bay, I thought deeply, I would trace a good bookshop to purchase a page-turner for him. Unfortunately, like a footloose wanderer, I loitered in the chest of the town like a weird wraith but failed to access a bookstore that stocks a heroic book to use as a good gift — an expression of love as recommended in the 5 Love Languages by Garry Chapman. Luckily, I bumped on one, which stocked one interesting title of John C. Maxwell. Those who love and cherish the wonderful writings of that putative American pastor must have pored over: Be a People Person.
Somehow, I was eager to set my mortal eyes on houses of gold such as The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma, Mastery by Robert Greene, Emotional Intelligence by Dr. Daniel Goleman, Presidents’ Pressmen by Lee Njiru, The Art of Institutional Leadership by Prof Laban Ayiro, You Can Win by Shiv Khera, et cetera.
Conversely, it is sad to state that my heart was hurt when most of the bookshops I visited in that town which abuts on the large lake only stocked core-course books and revision books used to prop up the main curriculum in our schools. Yet, I was looking for tantalising titles on leadership and motivation. However, I must admit that the serious search was akin to pressing a stone to produce water or asking for a blood donation from a mosquito. The penman felt pensive.
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Again, I was shell-shocked because in Nairobi, the best bookshops are ubiquitous. Along Kijabe Street, there is the Text Book Centre (TBC) that stocks course books from primary to tertiary levels. Then, under the good roof, there are intriguing genres for general readership. It is instructive to note that most Carrefour shopping malls in Nairobi and its suburbs, host TBC, where you can buy beautiful books to satiate your fat appetite for words knitted neatly between hard covers.
Indeed, Carrefour is a French multinational retail and wholesale corporation headquartered in Massy, France. It is the eighth largest retailer in the world by revenue. It operates a chain of supermarkets, grocery stores, bookstores, convenience stores, and genteel joints. As of January 2021, it had about 12,225 stores in 30 countries. Operations at TBC lend credence to Charlotte Wood’s wise words: “Bookshops are the safety vaults for the seeds of our country’s cultural and intellectual life.”
In addition, right in the heart of the Capital City, along Mama Ngina Street, there is the Prestige Bookshop — a behemoth of a bookstore owned by Ahmed Aidarus. I also think, this proprietor is the owner of Cheche Branch in the high-end Lavington Estate. He has a deeper understanding of the winsome words of John Updicke: “Bookstores are lonely forts, spilling light on to the sidewalk. They civilise their neighbourhoods.”
Maybe, after I have read and researched, I will write about Nuria, which also stocks oodles of books. In the whole scheme of things, one glaring question sticks out like an appendage: Where are good bookshops in our major towns such as Homa Bay? Can we attribute it to our poor reading culture and outright contempt for print media? Arguably, most Kenyans only read when they have a date with exams. No wonder, most bookstores in major towns stock shedloads of textbooks and revision books. Yet, our bookstores should become useful repositories of knowledge by casting many nets. They should sell a wide array of books hence entice a larger audience of readers.
Consequently, we should have intelligent investors in the book sector who can establish best bookstores in major towns such as Kisumu, Kisii, Homa Bay, Eldoret, Nakuru, Naivasha, Kericho, Murang’a, Nyeri, Nanyuki, Nyahururu, Isiolo, Embu, Maralal, Moyale, Meru, Marsabit, Machakos, Mombasa, Malindi, Voi, Gariassa, et cetera. In conclusion, it is the way to go because, as Liane Moriarty observed, “Bookshops are places of magical discoveries and the discovery of past pleasure. My bookshop, in fact any bookshop, makes me happy.”
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer is a ravenous reader. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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