Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan author and activist, dies aged 48

Kenyan author and activist Binyavanga Wainaina has died at the age of 48, the publication he founded announced. 

Wainaina, founder of the literary magazine Kwani, passed away following a short illness, the chairman of the Nairobi-based magazine told The Daily Nation on Wednesday.

Tom Maliti said the writer died a few minutes past 10pm (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday at a Nairobi hospital.

Wainaina had won the Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story “Discovering Home” in 2002.

Following the passage of a series of anti-gay laws across Africa in 2014, Wainaina publicly announced that he was gay.

In December 2016, Wainaina posted on Twitter that he was HIV-positive.

The Time Magazine in 2014 included Wainaina in its list of the “Most Influential People in the World”.