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Jeckonia Otieno is a poet, teacher and educationalist. He is trilingual in Dholuo, Swahili and English. Born in 1982 in Nairobi to a Luo family, as a child he moved with his family to Siaya in the south west of Kenya, a Dholuo speaking area, where he attended primary and secondary schools. In 2009, he graduated in Education from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, and taught literature in English for a short time at a seminary in the Manyara Region of Tanzania. He is currently employed on Project Busara with De La Salle Brothers, as a journalist working on their publication Teach Magazine, which advocates free primary education in the slums of Nairobi. The project aims to uplift the lives of poor children through education. (www.reachmagazine.org). As a poet, Jeckonia Otieno performs his own work. In 2008, his solo performance of his poem ‘Sweet Home’ won first prize in the universities category during the Kenya National Music Festival in Kisumu. He was also runner-up in the university category at the Kenya National Schools and Colleges Drama Festival in 2008. He has recently started writing and performing songs, and in April 2010 he produced his first audio CD, Mfalme Daudi [King David], He plans to study for a BA in Communications at St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.
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