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Kenya’s leading retailer Naivas supermarket officially launched a partnership with Kenyan writer’s. The launch coincided with the International Literacy Day which is marked on 8th September every year.
This initiative, as was highlighted during the initial call to Kenyan Writers, is aimed at supporting local authors and publishers by ensuring that they have an effective distribution network for their literacy and creative writing.
The retailers currently boast of a network of 75 branches spread across the country and as this therefore makes it an effective last mile partner.
“This is a project that is personally very dear to me as I have over the years felt the need and the burden to play my part in preserving our Kenyan story. As I always remark, I am Kenyan and there is nowhere else for me to go and as such it is my and your prerogative to conserve our heritage and books written by Kenyans is definitely a good place to start,” said Willy Kimani, Naivas Chief Commercial Officer.
“We are glad that since the beginning of this project, we have had an amazing turnout of Kenyan writers, authors and even publishers. From the initial call we had over 700 authors and publishers come forward and over the past 3 months, we have been working with them and partners and we are glad to say that over 300 new Kenyan authors will now have their books on our special Kenyan Authors corners within our libraries in store,” added Willy Kimani.
“Aptly named, “A Kenyan Writer’s Path” this project has truly been a journey for us as well. Whereas we started with the sole aim of solving the distribution equation, we have identified other gaps within this community which we believe we can help with through linking authors to several of our partners for professional services,” uttered Willy Kimani.
The public can now access a wider selection of Kenyan authored content in the library section ranging from educational, motivational, fictional, non-fictional, literature, biographies & memoirs, spiritual, topical, historical, teen & young adults to Sci-Fi and Fantasy books including those written in different Kenyan dialects.
The retailer is pulling all the stops as it seeks to encourage the offtake of Kenyan authored books with the singular aim of one day making sure that books become a staple in the monthly shopping basket.