Maina wa Kinyatti is a Kenyan Marxist historian and former political prisoner under Daniel arap Moi's dictatorship. He is widely considered the foremost researcher on the Mau Mau in Kenya,[1] one of the primary reasons that Kinyatti was arrested and imprisoned. After being released from prison on 17 October 1988 (after serving six and a half years, mostly in solitary confinement), he fled the country to Tanzania, fearing a re-arrest by Moi's government. After a month in Dar es Salaam, Kinyatti was forced to apply for political asylum in the US.[2] Kinyatti was awarded the PEN Freedom to Write Award in 1988.[3]