Keith Ang'ana's

• Qwani is a youth-led literary collective that was formed with the purpose of providing young creatives with a platform to showcase their work, hence help them create a sustainable career out of their art.
• It is a collective that contains writers, musicians, visual artists, photographers, film-makers, actors, poets, spoken-word artists etc.
• At the moment, it has 10,000 people under its wing, and presence in six counties in Kenya (Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Mombasa, Nakuru & Nyeri).
• I am the Founder and Executive Director of the collective, where I oversee operations, which includes the eleven books we have published as well as the events we host

• The Drunken Lectures is a platform that was formed to informalize the sharing of knowledge through hosting lectures in bars. It was an idea borne out of the fact that there exists so many nerds out there who’d love to share their information, but don’t have a place to do so.
• So, after looking around, we noticed that many people frequent bars. Therefore, why not meet people where they are? We usually host lectures every 2 weeks, and we have done 24 lectures so far, ranging from politics to economics to history to astrophysics to neuroscience and everything in-between. I am the Lectures Coordinator, in that I usually organize the choose the lectures that will happen, vet the applicants and then ensure that the lecture happens smoothly

• Following the Finance Bill 2024 that had sparked outrage amongst Kenyans, I decided to form a civic space where young people could meet and discuss the issues affecting the state socially, economically and politically, while acting as Members of Parliament, in order to bring out the full effect.
• The purpose of this was to provide a platform to groom future political candidates. I am the Programs Manager, in that I usually plan the physical events that will happen and ensure that all the resources that are needed for a successful execution of the event are availed

• Too Early for Birds is a theatre production that focuses on telling Kenyan history in a dope and funky way!
• It has done I have worked on the research team, where my main job was to conduct research on the stories that would be form the script of the play. I have also worked on the writing team, whereby I wrote the script of the play -
• Badassery. I have also worked on the marketing team, producing copy that would help market the show.
• And I am proud to say that we sold out all 13 days that we did the show -Tom Mboya. 

• The Kenya Museum Society is a not-for-profit organization that was formed in the year 1971 in order to support and raise funds for the National Museums of Kenya.
• It executes this by organizing book sales and art shows, whereby all the money generated from the sales goes to the operations and maintenance of the National Museums of Kenya.
• I work as the Assistant Editor of the ‘Kenya - Past and Present’, which is the society’s official journal that publishes pieces on Kenya’s history, archaeology, paleontology and anthropology

I have written 9 articles for The Elephant, which is a Pan-African publication that focuses on social, economic and political analyses on the continent of Africa and beyond.

• I have written 4 articles for Africa Is A Country, which is an African publication that offers a critical perspective on various social, political, and cultural issues affecting Africa that push back on continental legacies of colonialism and exploitation

I have written 35 articles for The Star newspaper, which is one of the leading print newspapers in Kenya

• On 7 February 2025, we held a reading party to read and discuss the progress and achievements of Kenyan women in the field of Literature.
• Here, we invited members of the audience to bring forward work which they feel is inspirational to the cause, and we read and discussed it all.
• The session culminated in a panel discussion that had Joan Thatiah, Kingwa Kamencu and Eunniah Mbabazi, all of whom are bestselling authors, as well as Lilian Momanyi, who is a literary events curator, Natasha Muhanji, who is an upcoming writer, and Naomi Nyakinyua, who is a publisher.
• It was held in conjunction with the UNESCO and had 200 people in attendance

On 23 June 2025, we collaborated with the ‘Africa Is A Country’ collective from South Africa, to host a Poetry Reading on revolutionary work. Happening just two days before the ‘Maandamano Anniversary @ 1’, we invited members of the public to come and read their revolutionary poems. The session culminated in a panel discussion that featured famous storytellers Ngartia and Oyamo Richard, spoken word artist Dorphanage, poet Clifton Gachagua and multi-disciplinary artist Seise Bagbo, all of whom contributed their opinions on this topic. It had close to 150 people in attendance

• On 13 September 2025, we hosted a Festival known as ‘Uchungu na Uhuru’, which is basically the Swahili translation of ‘Pain and Freedom’.
• The purpose of the festival was to come together and discuss the pain that Kenyans have gone through for the freedom of our country. We had three lectures (one of which was mine), a musical performance, a live painting, a photo booth, and even a live radio session at the venue. The event was well-attended with more than 500 people.

• In June 2025, I was part of the Nairobi Literary Festival, which is a festival that takes place in June every year, as a celebration of arts, culture and ideas in the city’s public libraries
• Here, I was invited to take part in two panels
• The first one was titled ‘Imagine Freedom: Where do we go from here?’. In this panel, we discussed why the protest movement did not materialize into a political party
• The second one was titled ‘Where were you on June 25th?’. In this panel, we discussed how public libraries can play a role in the revolution

• The Macondo Literary festival is an annual literary festival that takes place in September, which discusses African histories and futures, and brings together writers from English, French, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries.
• Here, I was invited to take part in two panels.
• The first one was titled ‘World-makers, future-crafters, story-shapers’. Here, we discussed how literature and revolutions intersect, and how this can be witnessed in Kenya.
• The second one was titled ‘Qwani and the language of a generation’. Here, we discussed the rise of Qwani as a literary publication for the Gen-Z, and how different it is from preceding literary collectives

• Following the death of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, we commemorated him by doing a story-telling session on his life and times.
• Members of the public were invited to tell their personal stories on how they related to his politics, and how they feel he impacted the nation.
• I was invited on the panel to tell the other side of history that is rarely told; about Raila as the son of Jaramogi, and how the two related with each other.
• We conducted this session in three cities; Nairobi, Nakuru and Kisumu, and both were successful, with an audience of more than 150 people in each

• On 27 September 2025, I was the guest speaker at the Amka Literary Forum, which is a Literary event that takes place on the last Saturday of the month at the Goethe-Institut Library.
• Here, I got a chance to discuss the start and growth of new-age Literature in Kenya, thanks to my experience with running Qwani and publishing four anthologies.
• I was interviewed by seasoned poet and writer, Tony Mochama, who is a newspaper columnist at the Saturday Nation, winner of the Miles Morland Fellowship, as well as an author of five books.