In this haunting and unforgettable Power Panel Bookshelf special, Ambassador Raychelle Omamo sits down with author and cultural curator Wanjiru Koinange to unpack her groundbreaking novel The Havoc of Choice, a fictional story rooted in the very real trauma of Kenya’s 2007 post-election violence.

Through deeply personal reflections and powerful readings, this episode explores how memory, grief, and silence shape the Kenyan national psyche.

We follow the lives of Kavata, her daughter Wanja, and a circle of unforgettable women as they navigate love, politics, and survival in a country on the brink. Wanjiru opens up about her creative process, her cause, and the courage it took to write one of Kenya’s most emotionally honest novels in recent history.

Themes Explored:

• Women’s voices in times of national crisis
• Father-daughter relationships
• Class, family, and the architecture of silence
• The lingering trauma of 2007
• Why we must remember to heal

Subscribe for more reflections, stories, and leadership lessons from the Power Panel. Get The Havoc of Choice wherever books are sold.

Listen to Wanjiru’s full leadership story in Episode 7 of Power Panel Echoes.

The reader is Bukonola Ngobi

Music credits:

• Michael Rothery - Not a game courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
• August Wihelmsson - Back on earth courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
• Wendel Sherer - Behind Bars courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
• Gavin Luke - May she rest courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
• Sad lofi afrobeat instrumental courtesy of Pond5
• Garden Friend - I will hold on to you courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
• Johannes Bornlof - Eye of the storm courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
• Miles Avida - The faults in my heart
• Ballpoint - Postcard paradise courtesy of Pond5

Sound effects courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

Photos Courtesy of Book Bunk

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