Jonathan Kariara was a Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

n poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 who wrote works including "A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree

A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree

"A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree" is a poem by the Kenyan poet Jonathan Kariara. It concerns a native farmer besieged by a tree-bound leopard that has apparently broken his fences, torn his medicine bags and stifled his wives' sensuality...

". He was also for several years the manager of Oxford University Press's branch office in Nairobi. Over the same period he ran regular workshops for writers in order to encourage and stimulate local literary creativity. In the late-1970s, his preferred stamping ground was Sadler House (now Consolidated Bank House), Makerere University

Makerere University

Makerere University , Uganda's largest and second-oldest higher institution of learning, , was first established as a technical school in 1922. In 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees from the University of London...

, where he encountered artistic and literary figures including Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan author, formerly working in English and now working in Gĩkũyũ. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature...

, Okot P'Bitek

Okot p'Bitek

Okot p'Bitek was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for Song of Lawino, a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernised...

 and Elimo Njau. He later had a close literary kinship with poet-compatriot Marjorie Macgoye.