Wanjiru Warama, a resident of La Mesa, CA has released a new memoir, The Native Daughter. The author tells stories of her family, the community, and her growing years in Kenya during the mid-1900s.

Warama shares her and her siblings’ memories and insights with compassion and depth. Family dynamics as well as social forces all come into play in her book. Her stories also shed light on the struggles of Kenyan farmworkers and rural populations under the British colonial rule, especially during the Mau Mau rebellion where her family was moved three times to camps.

Native Daughter is compelling and astonishingly positive given the abject poverty under which the author and her family members suffered.

Wanjirũ Warama is a Kenyan-American biographical and historical nonfiction author born who was raised in Kenya during a time of profound cultural and political change. She later immigrated to California, where she continued her education and built a life shaped by resilience, curiosity, and the power of story.

Born and raised on a British colonial farm, Wanjiru is the daughter of peasant laborers who had no formal education. Her writing is deeply shaped by this unique upbringing, her travels across all seven continents, and her journey as an immigrant in the United States. Warama’s eight books preserve the lived experiences of ordinary people whose histories rarely reach the page.

Having grown up in a home without books, Wanjiru understands the transformative power of education. Her own high school struggles—marked by poverty and resilience—are the subject of her upcoming memoir. She believes education is the most powerful tool for breaking free from the dehumanizing grip of poverty.

An active philanthropist and advocate for literacy, Wanjiru is a lifetime member of the Friends of the San Diego Public Library, the Rotary Club, and the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild.