Wallah Bin Wallah revolutionised Swahili learning at primary school level.He’s a renowned author of several titles but few people know his background. His series, Kiswahili Mufti, has been at the centre of Kiswahili learning in the country and out. He also writes poetry alongside other literary material.

Despite the fact that most people have heard of him, few know the author of twenty different tittles went through many hurdles before becoming who he is today.

Wallah was born in 1952 in Nyakach, in the then Nyando District (now Kisumu County). However; he did not attend his early education in Kenya. He went to Tanzania where his father was working with East African Railway, where he schooled in two different schools.

He was enrolled in Standard One at Lukungu Lower Primary School, where he studied from Standard One to Four. In Standard Four, he sat for his Common Entrance Examination (C.E.E). He later joined Bukumbi Upper Primary School in Mwanza, and sat for his General Entrance Examination (G.E.E) in 1970.

Nevertheless, his life at both schools was not a bed of roses. His father was not supportive in paying school fees and as a result, he was compelled to look for means of survival.

When he joined Nyegezi Seminary for secondary education, he had a different dream from what he is now; he intended to be a priest or father, as the school was offering secondary education, but only on religious education. However, he was forced to abandon his studies abruptly, after it emerged that he was not a Tanzanian. It was at this time when Ujamaa Villages were being embraced by Tanzanians for the country’s economist benefit.

“I dropped out of school after only one year,” said the 61-year-old. His life was full of coincidences. As he was preparing to return to Kenya, he coincidentally met one named Musa Bwana, who was a fish monger. ”He used to buy and take fish to Kisumu. I had some amount, and one fish was being sold at Sh.3. I bought some and accompanied Musa, to Kisumu, using a vessel called MV Victoria,” revealed the author.The business was making profit which made him to stay in Tanzania for over six months, before coming to Nairobi.

When he arrived to Nairobi in November, 1973. another coincidence knocked on the door of his life. ”I met a man called Zuberi Mohamed, and his sister. They were Tanzanians from Moshi, who had come to Kenya for education. They welcomed and accommodated me, and we all joined Raval’s Secondary School in 1974 which was located on Latema Road, on the building which is used by Midview Hotel currently,” said Wallah.

Malenga Wa Ziwa Kuu

He said his book; ”Malenga Wa Ziwa Kuu” was published while he was in Form Two. In 1975, he sat for his Kenya Junior Secondary School exam. Between 1976 and 1977, he had no option, but to sell ‘sukumawiki’ and groundnuts, in order to cater for his school fees.

He added that he would sell the goods at the roadside in Nairobi West to people heading to Kibera, from Industrial Area after work. No sooner had he completed his education at Raval’s than he was employed by the school, as Kiswahili teacher.

“As a student, I used to teach my counterparts Kiswahili. I was very proficient in the language and I was employed there immediately,” said the eloquent Swahili orator.

He later enrolled at Aga Khan Academy for ‘A’ Level, as a private candidate. ”I organised with Ali Attas so that I could be attending lessons after work,” he said. He established a good rapport with Attas, who is now the director, Radio Japan, and who used to work at Oxford University Press as Chief Editor of Kiswahili books and at BBC as a broadcaster.
In 1979, he sat for his Kenya Secondary Advanced Education.’ I wanted to be a secondary school teacher. Therefore, I joined Morogoro Teachers Training College in Tanzania in 1980 for Diploma in Teaching and completed in 1981 and returned to Kenya the same year (1981),” he said.

In 1982, he began teaching at Misiani Girls’ Secondary School in Kangundo where he taught for three years. ”In January 1985, I was transferred to Isinya Girls’ in Kajiado, after receiving a letter from retired President Daniel Moi and the late Prof. George Saitoti, who was then Vice- President. I was told that my ‘expertise in Kiswahili was needed there’ (Isinya),” he revealed.

Nevertheless, the father of six taught at the school for two years before joining Mbita High School in 1987 to 1994.While at Mbita, he had to resign so as to concentrate on book writing. ”I wanted to come to Nairobi where I could access publishers easily. As I was thinking of a place to land in Nairobi, I was requested by Makini Schools to go and teach there. This was a coincidence again,” he said, adding that his life has been full of coincidences.

He joined Makini Schools in Ngong Road, Nairobi in 1994. He enabled the school to gain fame. In fact his fame spread fast like ash thrown in the air. It was at Makini when he was approached by top officials from Longhorn Publishers, requesting him to write a course book.

”It was at this time when books like ‘Golden Tips’ and ‘Top Mark’ were popular. So Sossion and Musyoki Muli asked me if I could write a Kiswahili course book for them. I agreed and they were shocked when I told them I would only spend one week to come up with manuscripts,” revealed Wallah.

Mazoezi na Marudio ya Gateway

He came up with “Mazoezi na Marudio ya Gateway, Kiswahili,” which was published and gained fame in 1997. Luck knocked on the door again for the writer, when he received a contract from the Constitution Review Commission to translate the drafted constitution from English to Kiswahili.

Consequently, his accommodation and food were catered for by the Commission, at the Nairobi’s Hilton Hotel, for eighteen months.’ I was doing the translation during the day, and at night, I was writing my ‘Kiswahili Mufti’ books. This was an ample place for me to do both jobs,” said the author, insisting that he could not sleep.

In 2006 he left Makini Schools, and at the same year, published his “Taswira ya Mtihani, KCPE Kiswahili”. He also made a stride forward by publishing two books; ”Insha Mufti- Kioo cha Mwanafunzi” and ”Chemshabongo, Mwandani wa Mwanafunzi” in 2007.

In 2012 he was approached by the Director, Target Publications Limited, Simon Sossion, requesting him to write three course books for the company to be used in Uganda.

“I collaborated with Joseph Mwamburi and Henry Indindi to come up with ”Kurunzi ya Kiswahili” Book 5, 6 and 7,” he said. Apart from course books, Wallah has also begun writing short stories. In fact, he has authored five short stories; namely: ”Zawadi ya Sanda”, ”Sitaki Simu”, ”Tumgidie Bwege”, ”Mbwa wa Majini” and ”Kicheko cha Maiti”. The five were published by him through Wasta Kiswahili Centre. Furthermore he is preparing 14 short stories two of which he has given a publisher.

“I have given two titles to Oxford University Press for publication. The two are ‘Kifo cha Wema’ and ‘Kitanzi cha Utandawizi’ ,” he said, adding that publishers are fighting for his manuscripts. The short stories are meant to guide people on secrets of life and counsel them on how they should live.
Wallah, who holds a Diploma in Kiswahili and Arabic from Institute of Kiswahili and Foreign Languages in Zanzibar, has established Wasta Kiswahili Centre (Kasri Mufti) as a way of promoting Kiswahili apart from writing books. At the centre are several buildings used for various occasions.

There is a hall, used for lectures for those seeking guidance on matters pertaining to Kiswahili. Students from all over the country with their teachers, congregate nearly every day, in a bid to improve their performance in the national language. Journalists and students also seek guidance from the centre. Apart from learning, the centre also awards those who eloquently speak and write standard Swahili yearly.

“We have awarded many people here like Jack Oyoo Sylvester, Badin Muhsin, Nuhu Bakari, Charles Otunga, Enock Bitugi, Prof. Ken Walibora, Simon Sossion, Hassan Ali, Geoffrey Mung’ou, Mwanahamisi Hamadi, Isabela Kituri, Said Mohamed and several teachers,” he said.

The author, who holds a Masters Degree and a PhD in Kiswahili from University of Dar es Salaam-Tanzania, is planning to make Wasta a place to offer Diploma in Kiswahili and write other genre of books, for instance novels and plays. “The famous writers who are being published now were once young writers, and since their work became impressive, they were published. Those calling themselves young writers should also work hard for their work to be published,” he concluded.

By obiero

sdsfdsfdsfsdfdf

Few Kenyans coin as much from writing as he does. You must have met Wallah Bin Wallah, the Kiswahili Professor. If you haven’t met him in person, then you definitely didn’t escape studying his Kiswahili Mufti books.

These are compulsory from class one through class eight, you know.

When we meet Wallah at his now notable Wasta Kiswahili Centre in Matasya, he was working on manuscripts for 16 different textbooks on request by a leading East African publishing firm.

While the publishers had given short notice, its no sweat for Wallah. Writing Kiswahili books is how Prof Wallah Bin Wallah mints his dough via royalties.

Consider this and do the math. There are slightly less than 300,000 class eight students who clear school annually. The bulk must read Kiswahili Mufti. Throw in the over 7, 000 primary schools with student enrollment nosing northwards towards seven million, and Wallah Bin Wallah will bless the day he decided to muster Kiswahili.

Listen to what happens come end of year, when his royalties kiss the Sh50m ceiling: “Fifty million is just an average. It could be more or less. It could even go up to Sh70 million or come down to Sh30 million per year,” confirms Wallah Bin Wallah as he talks of the fortunes he rakes in from writing Kiswahili text and course books.

“Kiswahili is part of my life. It is not only Kiswahili that pays, whatever you do, try to do your best. Never undermine an idea. There is no bad idea or good idea. What is vital in an idea is how it is implemented,’’ offers the Kiswahili guru.

“You can win, but winners do not do different things, they do things differently,’’ he emphasised displaying Paul Arden’s ‘Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite.’’ Conducting research, consulting the experts, being sure and being timely, are some of the things that make one successful, according to Prof Wallah, who admitted making an average of Sh50 million annually was normal.

Besides course books, Prof Wallah has also written short stories including: Zawadi ya Sanda, Sitaki Simu, Tumgidie Bwege, Mbwa wa Majini, Kicheko cha Maiti, Kifo cha Wema, Kitanzi cha Utandawizi, Sifi Mara Mbili and Bado Mmoja, with 19 in the pipeline.

The hubby to Estallah Wallah and Silviallah Wallah has plans to share his fortunes in improving standards of Kiswahili.

The father of Fidia Nusra, Jeff Kauchape, Julisha Mantiki, Jitu Kamaliza, Sadfa Nana Wallah and Zaibu Musa launched ‘Tuzo za Wasta’ (Wasta Awards) in 2010 which is held on October 10 every year. “… my intention was to motivate people to continue using standard Kiswahili,’’ said Wallah, who holds a Masters and PhD from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The Wasta Awards have no sponsors yet. He had plans to upgrade Wasta Kiswahili Centre into a training institution and had made all preparations, but the Ministry of Education insisted that the institution ought to be a branch of a reputable university. Wallah shows some of the graduation gowns he had purchased for the Wasta Awards.

Wallah holds a philosophy that ‘Ndoto za ukweli hutimia, hata zikichelewa hazipotei. Ndoto za wongo hazitimii’ (Dreams which are true are fulfilled even if they delay. False dreams aren’t fulfilled).