- There was a time when books weren’t just part of childhood — they were a doorway.
But something has shifted. In Kenya today, the reading culture — especially outside of classrooms — is quietly dying, and no one seems alarmed.
There was a time when books weren’t just part of childhood — they were a doorway. A Saturday afternoon could disappear into the pages of a dog-eared novel, and a quiet evening meant getting lost in a world far beyond your own. But something has shifted. In Kenya today, the reading culture — especially outside of classrooms — is quietly dying, and no one seems alarmed.
We still have readers, yes. Book lovers exist. Authors continue to write. But they are increasingly islands in a sea of screens. Most people will spend hours scrolling through social media but struggle to finish a single chapter of a book. In fact, for many, reading for pleasure sounds like a luxury they cannot afford — not just in money, but in time, attention, and habit.
It’s not hard to see why. Our education system taught many of us to read for exams, not for joy. Literature was about passing KCSE, not discovering life through stories. Outside school, books are expensive and libraries are either underfunded or underused. And in homes where the daily focus is survival, sitting down with a book can feel indulgent. Add in the constant noise of phones, TV, and endless online content — and books slowly lose the battle for our attention.
Yet, something valuable is being lost.
Reading teaches us to sit still. To focus. To imagine. It builds empathy in ways that headlines and hashtags can’t. A novel lets you live inside someone else’s skin. A biography teaches you the weight of another life. Even fiction sharpens your sense of truth. But when we replace this with endless scrolling, our ability to concentrate, to think critically, and even to feel deeply begins to dull.
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It’s easy to blame technology — but the truth is, we choose what we give time to. We can reclaim reading, one small moment at a time. Parents can read with their children, not just lecture them about books. Schools can promote reading not as punishment but as privilege. Communities can revive libraries, share books, swap stories. And we — the distracted, busy adults — can decide that ten minutes with a book is worth as much as ten minutes on a screen.
A nation that doesn’t read risks forgetting how to listen, imagine, and think for itself. So maybe it’s time to put down the phone — and pick up a story. Not because we have to. But because we need to
