Descent from Cherang’any Hills: Memoirs of a Reluctant Academic

Book info:

Price in Kenya: Ksh 1800

Availability: All leading bookshops

To order online: write to info@macken.co.ke

The book, Descent from Cherang’any Hills: Memoirs of a Reluctant Academic, is a hard-hitting account written by Dr Benjamin E Kipkorir, Former Kenyan Ambassador to Washington. The book was launched on Friday 11^th December 2009 at the Lifestyle Mediastore, Westgate Shopping Centre, Westlands. The Guest of Honour during the launch was the Hon. Kenneth Marende, EGH, MP, Speaker of the National Assembly.

Ambassador Kipkorir’s memoirs are a stunning account told in captivating literary language, gripping phrases and simple sentences mortised to astonishing tightness. It is a breathtaking study in genius and plain perspiration – an exhilarating look deep inside the life of a man who as a boy struggled hard just to survive but still beat great odds to scale the highest

heights he possibly could. It is a story about what spawned and inspired,

birthed and moulded him to pull himself from nowhere to become an icon.

The memoirs are truly “Been there, done that, indeed!” Marakwet-born and

Cambridge-educated, Kipkorir has led several lives, any one of which could

have provided ample fodder for unforgettable memoirs.

A singular raconteur, the author weaves a tapestry – spanning many years –

in quick rapid-fire, both vivid and compelling. It’s a story to make one laugh,

a story to make one cry, to build one’s faith to maximise their potential, for it

is a story about possibilities.

We read with fascination as the quintessential Marakwet village boy with

almost frightful upbringing rises up gloriously and turns into a consummate

academic (albeit reluctantly), as he makes an epic journey through GAS

Tambach, Alliance High School, Makerere University and finally, to

Cambridge University, England.

Kipkorir, an astonishing figure of pure will, took his burning ambition to

equally deadly and fierce combat zones of war: study, the corporate world

and public service; working as a Deputy Clerk of the Sirikwa County Council,

a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Executive Chairman of the Kenya

Commercial Bank and later, as Kenya’s Ambassador to Washington.

Then, in a cruel twist of fate, disaster struck the Kipkorirs’ closely-knit family

with the force of a hurricane – and the family was shaken to a jolt – when

Kipkorir’s wife, Lea, was diagnosed with cancer. The author nostalgically

relives his last days with Lea in a language that is heartbreaking, poetic and

haunting; he recounts joys past and envisions what could have been.

Despite the passionately penetrating, often unflattering accounts of his

personal and family life, these memoirs are a work of history. Indeed, it is also

a story about Kenya as the author retraces the history of the nation,

highlighting its triumphs, struggles and political intrigues. The book is a

balanced critique of both the Kenyatta and Moi administrations – which he

was exposed to. It is also a source of new exciting information – especially the

chapter on local government, viewed against the yearning for a new

constitution.

Some of the other highlights include: the genesis of land conflict in the Rift

Valley, why devolution is not a new thing and why it is the way to go, the

intrigues of presidential appointments and sackings (he was sacked over the

Radio when he was Executive Chairman of Kenya Commercial Bank) and

much, much more!