Mutahi Wahome

Wahome Mutahi (24 October 1954 – 22 July 2003) was a beloved humourist from Kenya. He was popularly known as Whispers after the name of the column he wrote for The Daily Nation from 1982 to 2003, offering a satirical view of the trials and tribulations of Kenyan life.

Mutahi was equally well known in theatre where he wrote and acted in English and Kikuyu language plays that caricatured Kenya's society and politics using his company Igiza Productions. A memorial bust of the late Wahome has been erected at the Kenya National Theatre. Outside of Kenya, he wrote humour columns for Ugandan publications The Monitor and Lugambo.

Among his books are Three Days on the Cross which won the prestigious Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature (1992), Jail Bugs, Doomsday, and the immensely popular How To Be a Kenyan, based on his newspaper columns. Others include The Miracle Merchants, Mr Canta, Hassan the Genie, The Ghost of Garba Tula and Just Wait and See.