Keith Ang'ana's

Qwani is a youth-led literary collective that gives emerging Kenyan writers and artists a platform to showcase their work, hence helping them create a sustainable career out of their craft.

It is a collective that contains writers, illustrators, visual artists, photographers, film makers, actors, poets, and basically anyone in the arts.

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 informalise the sharing of knowledge through holding lectures in bars.

It was a brain-child 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. Hence, this place is also for the many people frequent bars. Therefore, why not meet people where they are?

The lectures are held twice 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 organise the choice the lectures that will happen, vet the applicants and then ensure that the actual 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 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 happen and ensure that all the components which 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 many shows, and many that I am also involved in, however the most recent one was Tom Mboya. It has been a 13 sold-out show days run, and Tom Mboya is the show I am most affiliated with.

I have been on the research team, the writing team (I wrote the script of the play — Badassery), as well as the marketing team. As such, my work consists of being a producer, putting up posters, branding caps that would be used by the cast and team, and then I am also tasked with the social media work, in which I usually share posts that have to do with the show.

The Kenya Museum Society is a not-for-profit organisation that was formed in the year 1971 in order to support and raise funds for the National Museums of Kenya.

It executes this by organising book sales and art shows, whereby all the money generated from the proceeds goes to the operations and maintenance of the National Museums of Kenya.

I work as the Assistant Editor of the Kenya — Past and Present journal, which is the official journal that publishes pieces on Kenya's history, archaeology, palaeontology and anthropology.

I have written 9 articles for the Elephant, which is in African publication that offers a critical perspective on various political and cultural issues affecting Africa that could exist in the public sphere.

Some of the articles I have written include:

I have written 4 articles for Africa is a Country, which is an African publication that offers a critical perspective on various political and cultural issues affecting Africa that could exist in the public sphere.

Some of the articles I have written include:

I have written 35 articles for The Star newspaper, which is one of the leading print newspapers in Kenya. It typically covers public-interest commentary grounded in city life, policy and everyday observation.

Some of the articles I have written include:

On 7th February 2025, we held a reading party to read out works by women writers in Kenya in remembrance of the strides Kenyan women in the literary scene had been able to achieve.

It was the second event by Qwani, and was the second of the panel-discussion-based events. It was hosted alongside UNESCO at the start of the year, and was attended by 200 people.

On 23rd June 2025, we collaborated with Africa is a Country in a collective public reading of revolutionary work by literary scholars and revolutionary writers.

Happening just two days before the Maandamano anniversary, we wanted reflect on the protests we had had, the lives we had lost, and the way forward in changing the world we live in.

On 13th September 2025, we hosted a festival, 'Uchungu na Uhuru', which is loosely translated to 'Pain and Freedom', as a way of taking a snapshot of Kenya's history and bringing the painful truths and beauty that has shaped the freedom of our country.

We conducted this in form of three lectures: history, music and visual art, music being a session of music history, and visual art being a session whereby a painter would paint based on his interpretation of the music we shared. The event also had attended music and freedom poetry readings, with the bands having a 500+ attendees.

In June 2025, I was part of the Nairobi Literary Festival, which is a festival that takes place in June every year, and which is the climax of the literary scene in the country's public sphere.

Here, I was invited to take part in two panels, one on freedom and protest and the other on libraries.

The first one was titled 'Imaginative Freedom: Where do we go from here?' in which I was joined by other writers and panelists, where we discussed how books could help in re-imagination of how the world could be.

Following the death of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, we ran a session in which we discussed his life, politics and public memory.

The session ran on 28th November in Kisumu and 3rd December in Nairobi.

Members of the panels who reflect their political past and ours included Raila Junior and David Ndii.

On 27th September 2025, I was the guest speaker at the Amka Literary Forum, which is a literary scene that takes place on the last Saturday of every month at the Goethe Institute in Kenya.

Here, I got a chance to discuss the start and growth of new-age literature in Kenya, given my experience with running Qwani and our publishing project.