Launch of community library, Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Muthomi Njuki (left), the Tharaka Nithi County Governor and USAID's David Gosney at the launch of a county community library. Kenya has 47 counties, administrative units each led by a governor. USAID funded the project as indicated by the area member of parliament. Libraries are important repositories of knowledge and sites where citizens can gather to share and interact over that knowledge. The library was funded by the US government, indicative of the lack of prioritizing of libraries in national and county development plans or annual budgets. 

Libraries are an integral cog in the knowledge ecosystem, which is also clearly tied to particular agendas such as foreign interests. For instance, when the United States of America’s government decided to cut funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), it exposed the extent to which Kenya’s social services, including education, are funded by foreign sources. In Kenya, the 2024/2025 national budget experienced a KSh. 52 billion shortfall that would affect the provision of teacher training, primary school literacy programmes, and learning scholarships among other areas (Kimani, 2025).