By Christine Kamau
48-year-old Caine literary prize winner Binyavanga Wainana is dead. The LGBTQ activist died at 10 pm in his Lang’ata home after battling stroke for some while.
The late Wainaina was an author, who wrote the essay “discovering home” and won the Caine literary prize for African writing, in 2002. He has written for his own publication “kwani”, the East African, national geographic, the Sunday Times (South Africa), Granta, the New York Times, Chimurenga and the Guardian (UK).
Following a wave on anti-gay laws being passed in Kenya, Binyavanga announced he was a homosexual, in 2014, the same year he was listed amongst the most influential people by the time magazine. In 2016, on world aids day he announced on his twitter handle, he was HIV positive and happy.