Wahome Mutahi - Legacy

Legacy

By the time Whispers died, he had grown into a formidable art form. In the mainstream press, both The Standard and The Nation have attempted to "reincarnate" Whispers through surrogate writers. Benson Riungu reintroduced "Benson's World", written along the lines of Whispers in the Sunday Standard after Mutahi's death. The Sunday Nation tried the "Whispers" column with a new writer but it never worked. However, the style of expression developed over the years by Mutahi in Whispers is still best expressed in politics through humour, satire and the use of certain widely diffused iconographic imagery. In 2009, the Sunday Nation introduced another humour column, Staffroom Diary, written by a Mwalimu Andrew — which is today widely regarded as the best humour writing in Kenya after Whispers. It is a humorous story about the experiences of Mwalimu Andrew, a Primary school teacher in rural Kenya. The teacher also studies at Kenyatta University which enables him to write on humour both in the village and in town. Mwalimu Andrew style is a little different from Whispers' in the sense that his anecdotes are stories that lead from one episode to another, all of the humorous. The column is very popular especially among teachers countrywide and is also published in Citizen newspaper, Tanzania. It is yet known who writes Staffroom Diary, nor is it clear whether he is indeed a primary school teacher or a creative writer, - but it seen as the best replacement of Whispers.

His family has started the Wahome Mutahi memorial trust to further his work especially humour and theatre. In addition, the Kenya Publishers Association started the bi-annual Wahome Mutahi award for literature, in his honour in 2005.

A book analysing Wahome Mutahi's works titled Wahome Mutahi's World was published and edited by Herve Maupeuand Patrick Mutahi