Jomo Kenyatta Literature Prize money goes up to 0.6 Million

The Jomo Kenyatta Literature Prize will be awarding Kshs600,000 to the winner in 2015 if sources are to be believed.

With the Burt Award 2014 and the Wahome Mutahi Prize 2014 done and dusted, we look forward to next year and what the prize committees will be handing to deserving winners. In the New Year, Kenyans can yet again anticipate entering two major literary prizes; the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature and the annual Burt Award. The former is aimed at writing for adults and children while the latter is aimed at young adults.

For the last few years the most lucrative prize has been the Burt Award as the winner, second and third go home with six-figure paychecks while in the local awards, one expects to go home with Kshs50,000 for the Wahome Mutahi handed earlier this year and sh150,000 in the adult and Kshs75,000 in the children’s for Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature. Not too lucrative.

My sources tell me that the sponsorship for next year’s Jomo Kenyatta Prize has been bumped up by sponsor Text Book Centre to Kshs600,000 for the winner. This is a great piece of news and you can be sure to see a noticeable bump in the entries to the awards as well as more interest from all involved in the literature business.

Great news for this Kenyatta Day Mashujaa Day.