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Kenya’s dominance over
the African publishing scene manifested itself when a Kenyan publisher was
elected to the board of African Publishers Network (Apnet), towards the end of
last year.
Lawrence Njagi, the chief
executive of Mountain Top Publishers, was elected chairman of the board while
Kiarie Kamau, the managing director of East African Educational Publishers
(EAEP), is the new East African regional representative of Apnet. Kiarie is also
the chairman of Kenya Publishers Association (KPA), taking over from Njagi in
April last year.
Apnet is the umbrella
body of publishers in Africa, made up of 55 nations. Membership to Apnet is
through national publisher’s bodies like KPA in Kenya. Apnet is in turn a
member of the International Publishers Association (IPA).
Apart from taking care of
the welfare of African publishers, Apnet promotes the book and book related
issues in the continent. “Apnet also promotes cultural and linguistic exchanges
in Africa,” explains Njagi. “We also ensure that African publishing gets
spotlight at international forums, like the Frankfurt Book Fair, which was held
in October.”
On his part, Kiarie
considers his election to Apnet’s board “a double blessing," having also
been elected chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association this year. “Two major
posts of leadership in Publishing in Kenya and in Africa is no mean
achievement, more so happening within the same year,” he says.
Before
being elected chairman of Apnet, Njagi had been the treasurer, a position he
had occupied for 12 years. He explains that before 2010, Apnet had been
moribund, being operated by one person without the involvement of other
members. “The first thing we did upon taking back control of Apnet was to put
up structures and to ensure the body was running professionally,” explains
Njagi