Paul Kipchumba


Paul Kipchumba, in Chinese Chen Pu , is a Kenyan author, businessman and philanthropist born on 30 April 1983 in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. His other names are Kipwendui and Kibiwott. He speaks Chinese, English, Marakwet, and Swahili. He is listed as one of the best Kenya's writers of all time, and the foremost contemporary Kenya's writer with a pan-African outlook.

Education

He has studied literature and language at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and Tianjin Foreign Studies University, China; Graduate Attachment at the British Institute in Eastern Africa under Henrietta More, a British professor of social anthropology at the University of Cambridge; Certificate in “Energy Within Environmental Constraints” at Harvard University, USA, under David Keith, Gordon McKay professor of applied physics; has also sat for Chinese language proficiency test at Hanban/ Confucius Institute.

Occupation

He is the Executive Chairman at Shenhai Energy, and an advisor at Kipchumba Foundation.

Works

He has been writing from a young age, as exemplified by his emerging third best in the 1999 British Council Essay Writing Competition for high school students for his essay "Crime is a Bridge to Success". He has many publications with Kipchumba Foundation that are also available at Amazon and is recognized by a dozen other authors. The following are some of his publications:

Books and Stories

. Awen nyo Kuryonchotei: Nta Amunee to Kuweti Kuryong’otei Kimukulmet. Marakwet Translation of Ngugi wa Thiongio’s “The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright”. Nairobi: Jalada.

Philanthropy

He is a major philanthropist in the realm of education. Most of his donations are channelled into Kipchumba Foundation, for which he is a major donor. He has also been instrumental in promoting peace and national cohesion in Kenya, especially in resolving communal conflicts between warring Marakwet and Pokot ethnic communities in North western Kenya, and in quelling political temperatures in 2017 in Kenya by convening stakeholder forums under the auspices of Kipchumba Foundation.

Human Rights Struggles

As an intern at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Paul Kipchumba contributed much more in championing promotion of Human Rights among communities in Kenya. He founded the North Rift Human Rights Networks and helped communities to document their Human Rights struggles in Mizizi ya Haki by enabling formation of community editorial boards, while serving as an overall coordinator and editor.

Controversy

In his book Africa in China’s 21st Century: In Search of a Strategy, Paul Kipchumba says that democracy is not appropriate as a political system in Africa because it causes misery and can only be applicable in wealthy economies. He observes that there is need to advance a political system that accord with Africa’s material and intellectual poverty. In this book he says that African countries should formulate policies on how to tap aid from China.