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Cover of My Life with a Criminal by John Kiriamiti

My Life with a Criminal

  • 148 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 1989

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1 About this book

The late 1690 and early 70s may be remembered as the years of the great bank and other armed robberies in Kenya. This is the true story of one of the participants in some of those robberies, John Kiriamiti.

In raw and candid language, Kiriamiti tells the story of how he dropped out of secondary school when he was only fifteen years old, and for a time became a novice pickpocket, before graduating into crimes like car-breaking and ultimately into violent robbery.

This spell-binding story takes the reader into the underworld of crime, and it depicts graphically the criminal s struggle for survival against the forces of law. John Kiriamiti was imprisoned on 6 January 1971, after being convicted on a charge of committing robbery at Naivasha on 4 November 1970. Kiriamiti left Naivasha Maximum Security Prison in August 1984, just five months after the publication of this novel and those following which were a sensation with Kenyan youth in the late 1980s and '90s.

Good for readers who want: true crime, a true life story, and a short read.

  • True Crime
  • Memoir
  • Crime
  • Criminals
  • Family life
  • Love
  • Betrayal
  • Forgiveness

2 About John Kiriamiti

Born 1950

John Kiriamiti (born John Baptista Wanjohi, 14 February 1950) is a Kenyan former bank robber turned writer. Kiriamiti is best known as the writer of My Life in Crime and My Life with a Criminal: Milly's Story, which were both a sensation among Kenyan youth in the late 1980s and 1990s. Kiriamiti was born in Thuita Village, Kamacharia, Murang'a District, in Central Kenya.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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