Meet Kenyan footballer turned author who wants to break the World Record

ELIZABETH MUSYIMI ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST

28 May 2022

• Robert Mwangi plans to break the World record and inspire kids from Eastlands. "I want to tell those kids these stories so that they can know I was one of them. So they can relate to someone who is like them and know that they can do something about changing their lives."

Former soccer player Robert Mwangi is on the road to sign 1260 copies of his book 'Whisper In The Jungle' at the Ofafa Jericho on June 2, 2022.

Speaking to Mpasho.co.ke, the former KCB footballer said;

"I am trying to break the World record for the biggest book signing ever held in Africa by an African author. I am going to try and sign over 1260 copies of my book Whisper In The Jungle at Ofafa Jericho high school on June 2nd."

Spearheaded by Story Moja publishers and textbook center, Mwangi is going to set up a book store so that alumni, visitors and parents can buy books and also donate those books to the store. Mwangi told this writer that he wanted to make kids realize that picking up a book can change their live.

"Some of us grew up in very poor backgrounds. When my mum lost her job when I was 15 years old , we lived in a tiny room that didn't even have a toilet in Makongeni."

"I want to tell those kids these stories so that they can know I was one of them. So they can relate to someone who is like them and know that they can do something about changing their lives."

Mwangi gives credit to Ofafa Jericho for moulding his soccer talent.

"This is giving back to my school, the school that made me who I am. I was a soccer player and Musa Otieno was our captain and we were number one in the country in soccer and that's where my soccer talent blossomed."

He received a soccer scholarship to go to the US in 2002. "And it is only cause I was in the high school soccer team and getting to learn from kids in Makongeni," he added

He recalls when he was listening to Barack Obama in 2008, a speech that left him impressed "I started typing what he said and then I ended up typing other things. It was therapeutic. Every day I came home from work, I typed something. The days turned into a year and I looked and I had six hundred pages. I poured my heart. I had not taken a single writing class anywhere at the time."

But what is Whisper In The Jungle?

"My story is not just my story, it is the story of my generation. It is the story of a young boy who receives a scholarship to go to America but right before he goes to America, his girlfriend disappears into the forest. He forgets about his American dream and dashes into the forest to look for his girlfriend. In the forest, he undergoes a transformation, an identity crisis."

"There's a point in our lives where love transcends fear, where love is stronger than anything else," he concludes