Binyavanga Wainaina\, Kenyan writer and gay activist\, dead at 48

Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan writer and gay activist, dead at 48

AFP  |  Nairobi 

Internationally-renowned Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina, whose high-profile coming out in a country that criminalises made him a revered figure for gay rights in Africa, has died aged 48, his publishing house said Wednesday.

The came to world prominence with the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002.

He died just days before was expected to deliver a long-awaited ruling on whether to abolish colonial-era anti-gay laws.

"He passed on some time last night," Tom Maliti, the of the Kwani Trust, a Nairobi-based publishing house founded by Wainaina, told AFP.

had suffered a stroke in 2015 and was living with HIV. His brother told Capital that condolences were pouring in from around the globe.

"We lost Ken last night. We are grieving the loss... but Ken was an incredible person, with an incredible wit," he said.

"The wound is still fresh, but we have received an outpouring of messages, from the people across the world, we are greatly comforted by them."

At times a divisive figure in his native Kenya, where same-sex relationships are outlawed, sparked huge debate in 2014 with his bombshell short story entitled

"I am a Homosexual, Mum".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Wed, May 22 2019. 14:56 IST