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Introduction It is now more than ten years ago since my paper on Publishing in Kenya appeared in ABPR (Vol. III, no. 2, 1977). That paper was not, in fact, specifically written for ABPR; it was prepared for a UNESCO Conference on "Publishing in Multilingual Situations", a workshop which was held in Alma Ata, USSR in 1976. When ABPR invited me to write this paper, I welcomed this äs an opportunity to take a hard look at what has been happening here these last ten years; more so since the invitation arrived towards the end of last year, shortly after the Hast African Publishing House (EAPH) was declared bankrupt and closed down. Since it was rurther emphasized that I should discuss my personal Publishing style in detail, I have decided to divide this paper into two parts. The first is a general survey of Publishing in Kenya, and the second is about my own involvement in it.

There are three language categories in which books are published in Kenya: English, Kiswahili and the African languages. For the purposes of this paper, I shall ignore Asian and Arabic languages which, though in oral use, are neither viable nor active on the Kenyan publishing scene. English, the language in which most of the books are published is, de facto, the official language of Kenya. It is the medium of instruction in schools and is the language of the civil service: government publications, notices, laws, etc., are published in it. In society, it has come to be associated with the educated elite and well-to-do. It is spoken by approximately 30 per cent of Kenya's 13 million people. Kiswahili, proclaimed the national language two years ago and recently adopted for use in the National Assembly, is spoken by nearly 60 per cent of the entire population. It is taught in primary and secondary schools as a compulsory subject, although many people who speak it have either acquired it through contact with other speakers, or because, being a Bantu language, it is similar to the indigenous Bantu languages spoken by the majority of people in this country. It has the advantage of transcending tribe, age-group, and is more acceptable because it is not coloured with ethnic sentiments. It is orally used, along with the African languages, in the interpretation and dissemination of the information contained in government and official publications. There are more than thirty African languages in use in Kenya today. In the rural areas where they are constantly and exclusively used, they constitute the only means of communication within the ethnic group, especially amongst the old and young people. Because of this, these languages provide a viable link between the old and new generations, and are an important means through which the cultual heritage and traditions of the ethnic group are preserved and passed on. In addition to this important role of oral communication and cultural continuity, these languages are still used as the medium of instruction in about 30 per cent of Kenya's 8,000 primary schools, especially during the first three years of education, even though the official medium of instruction has been English since 1965. The largest of them, Gikuyu, is spoken by just under 20 per cent of Kenya's population. There is plenty of mobility within the three language categories. In metropolitan areas, for example, the three are in use all at once. Although many people are learning to speak Kiswahili and English, there is little tendency for speakers of the African languages to learn to speak each other's languages.