Uhuru now has time on his hands; he should write an autobiography

Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard]

There are many eloquent quotes out there extolling the habit of reading regularly. Some of them equate occupying oneself with a captivating book to travelling to distant worlds at no cost. English writer Jeanette Winterson put it beautifully, saying that "books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world."

A biography goes one step further and takes the reader into the most intimate recesses of important people's sanctums. Most obviously, Kenyans would relish an opportunity to peer inside the 'other world' behind those thick curtains draping the House on the Hill. Lee Njiru's unputdownable memoir, Presidents' Pressman, which revealed in great detail a surprisingly humane side of former president Daniel arap Moi, only whetted our appetite.

While the Presidency cannot be penetrated at will by every Tom Dick and Harry, we can still satisfy our wanderlust in the literary way proposed by author Walter Mosley who said that "a peasant that reads is a prince in waiting". I therefore challenge retired president Uhuru Kenyatta, while his memory is still fresh, to tell us his insider's story.