Benjamin Kipkorir, 1939-2015

I was very saddened to learn of the passing of Dr Benjamin Kipkorir on 20 May 2015. Born in 1940 in Kapsowar, Elgeyo-Marakwet District in Kenya, Ben was the pre-eminent Marakwet intellectual. Through his work on the Marakwet, he made an enormous contribution to the history and anthropology of Kenya, championing oral historical techniques as well as ‘ethnography of the self’ in the days before postcolonial reflexivity had become established. Ben’s support and astute critique has been present from the very beginning of my academic career, when I arrived in Kenya as a PhD student. In fact, in 1981 he convened the conference at the University of Nairobi where I gave the very first paper on my Marakwet research, and his edited collection The Kerio Valley contained my first publication. It’s hard to believe that his kindly, wise, critical voice will no longer be heard Read more

The writer I knew: Remembering Benjamin Kipkorir

When I learnt on Wednesday, May 20, that Dr Kipkorir had passed on, I could not help but remember the singular raconteur, who told his story earnestly and genuinely, though some critics have said “the English is difficult in some places”. Dr Kipkorir led several lives (some claim he was sometimes controversial but I only knew him as a great writer), any one of which could have provided ample fodder for unforgettable memoirs. Read more

PROF. DR. BENJAMIN E. KIPKORIR

Before Dr. Kipkorir moved from active academic life and to enter the private sector, he served on several panels and bodies, notably the Armed Forces Pay and Allowance Review Board and the Presidential Working Party on the Second University. Development Bank. Dr. Kipkorir has a record of many publications including The Marakwet of Kenya which was published in 1973. He was the Treasurer of The Kenya National Academy of Sciences. Read more