My project works to reintroduce a diversity of voices to a period of Kenyan history largely remembered for its large-scale geopolitical transitions and President Daniel arap Moi’s close control over freedoms of speech and press. By considering resistance theatre in conjunction with Moi’s rhetoric and publicity acts, I register a critical conversation between Kenyan intellectuals and the state over issues of nationalism, international politics, and ethnic expression. Funding will allow me to situate myself as an historian and a collaborator among Kenyans already engaged in the time-sensitive process of recovering this literary tradition and the political and cultural history it expresses.