About Wanjiru
Wanjiru was born and nurtured in a world devoid of books, in a British colonial farm in Kenya, where her illiterate parents scratched a living all their lives. She had to offer a trade to her father for him to allow her to attend school. Education is, therefore, close to Wanjiru’s heart; the only way that she knows that enables a person—born under a cloud of disadvantages—to escape the dehumanizing poverty she endured in her high school years. Born and raised in Kenya when it was a British colony, Wanjiru Warama is an author who writes nonfiction books that entertain, enlighten, and inspire everyday people to overcome and thrive.
As a young woman, Wanjiru moved to California, USA. On arrival, she went through the rigors and tribulations of having to start her life all over in a new culture. She scrambled and remained steadfast in the throes of defeat before she got a foothold in her adopted country. This became the basis of her first two books, Unexpected America, published in 2016, and Entangled in America, published in 2017.
Her third book of short stories, YEARS of SHAME, highlights the marginalization and subjugation of women from infancy to old age. It especially details a story of a 14-year old girl who suffered the despicable practice of Female Genital Mutilation and its psychological effects and how she overcame that stigma.
Wanjiru’s latest book, Beyond Conscious Self, It’s Why I Travel & Why I write, is short-light-hearted, which shares two timely, life-changing and inspiring stories in the life of the author’s journey. The first one chronicles her experience with the Friends of the San Diego Public Library, the platform she credits with giving her an opening toward writing. The other story is about Wanjiru’s physical endurance in Santorini, Greece, in 2012.
Currently, Wanjiru has embarked on the biggest writing challenge of her eight-year career. She’s writing a book series about life on a colonial farm; how her family, community, and she negotiate colonial life, stories that would otherwise go unwritten. The stories will include the Mau Mau freedom fighters’ struggle for Kenya’s independence and its effects on ordinary people who found themselves sandwiched between the freedom fighters and the British colonial government.
The first book in the series will publish in the Fall of 2021. You are welcome to sign below for updates and special deals for Wanjiru’s Club Members.
Besides writing, which hogs most of her time, Wanjiru is a philanthropist at heart who is passionate about education. She is a lifetime member of the Friends of the San Diego Public Library, a member of the San Diego Writers & Editors Guild, and of The Rotary Club among others.
Wanjiru lives in California and visits family in Kenya whenever she can.