Kithaka wa Mberia

Kithaka wa Mberia (b. 1955) is a prolific and innovative poet who writes in free verse. He often employs innovative graphic forms, playing with the visuality of poetry. Wa Mberia has published four poem collections: Mchezo wa Karata (1997), Bara Jingine (2001), Redio na Mwezi (2005)and Msimu wa Tisa (2007). His poems became the first Swahili poems to be dramatised at the Kenya National Theatre, in 1988.

Wa Mberia is also an academic and playwright. He works as associate professor in linguistics at University of Nairobi. He has written three plays, one of which has been shown on TV. Wa Mberia has also worked as editor, consultant and translator, and his paintings have been exhibited at a Nairobi gallery. Moreover, wa Mberia has directed and produced a dramatisation of his own poems for university theatres, and directed a play by Alamin Mazrui.