Wanjiru Koinange

Biography

Wanjiru Koinange is a Kenyan writer, library restorer, and social entrepreneur from Nairobi. Her debut novel, The Havoc of Choice, explores the human cost of Kenya's 2007 post-election violence; it was published in the UK (2019) and Kenya (2020), where it became a national bestseller, and was later translated into Arabic. She holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Literature from the United States International University in Nairobi and a Master's in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town, and has written for publications including Chimurenga and Commonwealth Writers, where she served as a cultural correspondent. In 2017, she co-founded Book Bunk Trust with Angela Wachuka to restore Nairobi's public libraries — including the McMillan Memorial Library, the subject of the documentary How to Build a Library (2025) — and she also directs the Nairobi Litfest (NBO Litfest).