KENYA LATEST NEWS: Meet the Eight-Year-Old Kenyan Author

Parents should create a conducive environment for children to identify their talents earlier, former President Mwai Kibaki has said. He was speaking at the launch of the book Out of the Box by Ngure Ndiritu at Kilimani Junior Academy in Langata, Nairobi Thursday. Kibaki said the society should give children platforms to express themselves. "Children's stories reflect the true human spirit of giving and caring," Kibaki said. "They tell the purest of stories, untainted by prejudice or twisted by sarcasm."

The former president urged the society to foster such talent.
"Many children can write but they are told to wait until they become adults."He said children should be helped because writing will help them excel in written communication and make them future authors. Kibaki said that a man who does not read has no advantage over one who cannot.
He said the book expresses views held by children irrespective of origin. Out of the Box is a collection of short stories that will join over 250 titles by Phoenix Publishers.
Ndiritu, 8, is the son of former Industrialisation assistant minister Nderitu Mureithi, who served in Kibaki's regime.

Kibaki said children's books written by adults have contents and style influenced by the lenses and perspectives of adults.
He said this fails to capture the real world as a child would with their own eyes. MPs Jeremiah Kioni, Kabando wa Kabando and George Nyamwea accompanied the president.