Mwangi Ruheni

Mwangi Ruheni is the pseudonym of Kenyan novelist Nicholas Muraguri (born 1934) Muraguri was trained as a chemist, and spent 22 years as the Chief Government Chemist of Kenya.

Early life and education Muragari attended Mang'u High School. He then went on to Makerere University in Uganda, where he studied Botany Zoology and Chemistry and became editor of the schools' creative writing journal, the St. Augustine's Newsletter. He then received a master's degree in Chemistry between 1957 and 1959, a MSc in forensic Science at the University of Strathclyde.

Career Before becoming a novelist, Ruheni trained as a scientist and had no literary background. Despite this his novels did very well with both academics and non-academics alike. Ruheni is not very forthcoming about his literary career.

He worked as a scientist in the civil service eventually becoming Chief Government Chemist, staying largely out of the public eye through most of his career, only publicly connecting himself to his pseudonym in a 1995 interview. His book Random Thoughts is largely a commentary on the literary and publishing industries.

Works The following is a list of works by Ruheni: School Chemistry Textbook What a Life! (1972) – novel What a Husband! (1972) – novel In Search of their Parents (1973) – children's book The Future Leaders (1973) – novel -- African Writers Series The Minister's Daughter (1975) – novel -- African Writers Series The Mystery Smugglers (1975) – novel The Love Root (1976) – novel Random Thoughts Book 1 (1995) – collection The Diamond Lady (2005) – novel Survival in Excess (2008) – non-fiction