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Hezekiel Gikambi is a teacher, journalist and editor, and author of fiction, drama, poetry and textbooks. He was born in 1971 in the Meru region of Kenya, where he was also brought up, speaking Kimeru as his first language. As a high school student he grew interested in the Kenyan national language, Kiswahili. After graduating from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Education (Arts) Honours degree, he started his teaching career in Mombasa, the Kenyan Coastal town where Kiswahili originated. Even though he was a Meru (easterner), teaching Kiswahili to Swahilis (coast people) enabled him to acquire a naturalised coastal accent and a firm grip of the language, as he interacted with classical Swahili poets like Ahmed Nassir and Sheikh Ahmed Nabhany. While teaching, he became a part-time Consultant Kiswahili Editor for several publishing firms in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as church organizations in UK. Since then, Hezekiel Gikambi has become an established Kiswahili author. He has written five Kiswahili course books, including the series Johari ya Kiswahili [Swahili Jewel] (2009), for Tanzanian high schools, Peak Encyclopedia KCSE Compulsory Subjects and two books for 10-15 year-olds, entitled Safari ya Serengeti [The Journey of Serengeti) (2010) and Ningependa Kusahau [I would like to forget] (2010). After teaching Kiswahili for 15 years at high schools and colleges, in 2008 Hezekiel Gikambi also became Kiswahili education editor for the Kiswahili daily paper Taifa Leo [Daily Nation]. He is also a part-time consultant on translation involving Kiswahili, and currently a postgraduate student in Journalism and Mass Communication at Kenyatta University. He frequently gives readings of his poems, and he writes plays. Currently he is working on his first novel, entitled Haki Haramu [Illegal Rights]. Hezekiel Gikambi lives in Nairobi with his wife Kawira, an educationist, and their two daughters Furaha and Faraja.
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