Parsilelo Kantai

Parsilelo Kantai is one of Kenya ’s top investigative journalists. Until April 2006, he was the editor of the environmental magazine, Eco forum. He has researched and written on the illegal privatisation of the Mara Triangle; the social and environmental impact of the Dandora dumpsite on the neighbouring community (for which he received the runner-up prize in the Peter Jenkins Award for Environmental Journalism, 2004) and a three-month investigation into the economics of the charcoal industry in Kenya (for which he received a special commendation). He contributes to the East African, the Sunday Times (South Africa), the Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement (UK). Other articles and essays have been published in the Journal of East African Studies (Oxford University), the Virginia Quarterly Review (US, forthcoming) and Vanity Fair. He is a former Reuters Fellow, the recipient of a Ford Foundation IIEE grant, and is currently a Chevening Scholar in the UK. His debut short story, Comrade Lemma and the Black Jerusalem Boys Band was short-listed for the Caine Prize. Other work has been published in Kwani?, the Mechanics Institute Review, and various other anthologies. Parsilelo is currently writing a novel, and editing creative non-fiction for Storymoja.