Alexander Nderitu (Kenya)

Alexander Nderitu (born April 23, 1979) is a Kenyan novelist, scriptwriter, and internet technologist. He has also shown interest in fashion design, music production, and filmed entertainment. Nderitu is a signatory to the PEN Charter.

Born Alex N. Nderitu in Nyeri, Kenya, he was an avid reader from a young age and always aspired to be a career writer.

He moved to Nairobi in 2001, where he worked as a movie reviewer and later as an internet technologist. With a background in IT, he explored online options for literature. In November 2002, he became Africa’s first digital novelist with the online publication of his debut novel, When the Whirlwind Passes. Initially offered as a free download on his website, it remains Africa’s most-downloaded novel. In 2004, he was nominated for the Douglas Coupland Short Story Award for his tragic spy story, “Life as a Flower.” In late 2007, Nderitu won a Theatre Company prize for his humorous stage play, Hannah and the Angel. The play, performed by the actors’ group “Fire By Ten,” debuted at the Phoenix Theatre in Nairobi on November 11, 2007.

Nderitu has posted numerous poems on the internet, some of which have appeared in local Kenyan newspapers and in a VoicesNet poetry anthology.

His other works include The Patriots Club, a thriller about arms smuggling, and What’s Wrong With This Picture?, a stage play about the Hollywood film industry.

In 2024, under the African Griot, Alexander Nderitu launched the Alexander Nderitu Prize, which ran from May 1 to May 31. The prize aimed to appreciate writers and literary workers through the submission of short creative pieces limited to 3,000 words.