Kenya

Countries

Two genuinely useful books: one on how public money is captured, one on the mobile-money system that made Kenya a case study in leapfrogging.

7 books

Start here

  1. It's Our Turn to EatMichela Wrong, 2009
  2. Kenya: A History Since IndependenceCharles Hornsby, 2012
  3. Digital KenyaBitange Ndemo, Tim Weiss, 2016

Books 7

Kenya: A History Since Independence
T2 Kenya: A History Since Independence
Charles Hornsby · 2012 · Exhaustive and unusually attentive to who owned what, and when.
Open Library
It's Our Turn to Eat
T3 It's Our Turn to Eat
Michela Wrong · 2009 · Whistleblower's account of the Anglo Leasing procurement scandals; essential country risk reading.
Open Library
Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963-2011
T3 Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963-2011
Daniel Branch · 2011 · Ethnic coalition politics as the mechanism that allocates economic rents.
Open Library
Digital Kenya
T3 Digital Kenya
Bitange Ndemo, Tim Weiss · 2016 · Edited by the regulator who enabled M-Pesa; founder interviews throughout.
Open Library
Africa's Business Revolution
T3 Africa's Business Revolution
Acha Leke, Mutsa Chironga, Georges Desvaux · 2018 · McKinsey operator's view; Nairobi as the region's corporate hub.
Open Library
The Political Economy of Kenya
T4 The Political Economy of Kenya
Michael G. Schatzberg · 1987 · Dated but the clearest treatment of the settler-to-Kenyan capital handover.
Open Library
Money, Real Quick: The Story of M-PESA
T4 Money, Real Quick: The Story of M-PESA
Tonny K. Omwansa, Nicholas P. Sullivan · 2012 · How Safaricom built the world's reference mobile-money business.
Open Library