Kenya Literature Bureau


The Kenya Literature Bureau is a publishing house and state corporation in Kenya founded in 1947. It is located in South-C off Popo Road in Nairobi.

History

KLB was initially established by the British High Commission in 1947 as the East African Literature Bureau, to publish books for the general public in Kiswahili, East African vernacular languages and English. The Bureau's first director was Charles Granston Richards, who held that post for fifteen years. The regional status continued after independence with the establishment of the East African Community. In the early 1970s the Bureau published many pioneering anthologies of English-language poetry from East Africa:
However, in 1977, the EAC collapsed and the reins of the bureau were transferred to the Kenyan Ministry of Education thereby making it a department under that ministry. In 1980, the KLB Act was passed by the Kenyan Parliament making it a state corporation—a status it holds to this day.

Book series