Peter Kimani – bringing the world to Kenya

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The Kenyan author and poet Peter Kimani has won the country’s highest literary honour and was one of the poets chosen by National Public Radio in the United States to compose a poem to mark Barack Obama’s inauguration as President. The BBC’s Anthony Irungu meets Peter as he writes his latest novel. Its working title is Kalifornia and it follows three young characters, one Kenyan and two Somali refugees, from the 1990s Nairobi neighbourhood of California, named after the film screenings that used to happen there, to its more famous name sake, half way across the world in the United States. Resisting the temptation to go back to the neighbourhood, Peter is using music, his diaries and an old photograph to conjure up the memories of his youth. Producer: Andrea Kidd (Image of Peter Kimani. Credit to Yusuf Wachira)