Amid a sea of newer buildings that make up Nairobi’s central business district, McMillan Memorial Library, the oldest of its kind in the East African hub, is an outlier. Nestled in the heart of the bustling neighborhood, the library was opened in June 1931 in celebration of its namesake, William Northrup McMillan, a white American philanthropist who settled in Kenya in the early 1900s.

At the time of McMillan Memorial Library’s opening, the institution was only open to people who looked like McMillan, which is just the beginning of the library’s controversial and complicated colonial past. It’s a palpable history that radiates throughout the institution, which is largely due to the library not being renovated since its opening. Though Africans have had access to the institution since 1958, few Kenyans have ventured past the neo-classical building’s granite-clad columns (myself included).

But Wanjiru “Shiro” Koinange and Angela Wachuka are hoping to change that sad reality.

The two women co-founded the Book Bunk, an organization that’s committed to revitalizing Kenya’s neglected public libraries. Their efforts are the subject of How to Build a Library, a documentary charting their dream of renovating the McMillan Memorial Library.

Directed and produced by husband-and-wife duo Christopher King and Maia Lekow, How to Build a Library offers a brave and intimate portrait of two women’s valiant effort not only to restore the McMillan Memorial Library but also to create a safe space for Kenyans to create, imagine and remember.

After its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, How to Build a Library opened the Nairobi Film Festival on Oct. 16 and marked its first public Kenyan showing. As it continues to screen at the festival, which concludes on Oct. 26, Blavity spoke to King and Lekow via email about the years-long process to create the documentary, why libraries are so important in countries like Kenya, and how Kenyan youth are continuing Koinange and Wachuka’s work.

Why are libraries so important, especially in countries like Kenya, where colonization and its detrimental aftershocks have contributed to so much historical erasure?  

Christopher King and Maia Lekow: Libraries are so important, especially in countries like Kenya, because there is clearly such a huge need for public spaces and services.  When McMillan Library was built in 1931, it was only for white settlers, and Africans did not have access to the library until 1958. Policies like this have perpetuated a history of inequality that continues to this day. So now more than 50 years after independence, the fact that a space like McMillan has remained in its original state and never overhauled to meet the needs of Kenyans, felt like a microcosm for the frustrations that many young people feel towards the way the country is being run and we tie that back to the deeply entrenched colonial systems of inequality that remain intact in Kenya’s modern state. 

As we followed Shiro [Koinange] and [Angela] Wachuka’s work over the past eight years, we’ve witnessed a new generation of young visionaries taking these spaces on, not just as physical renovations, but make systemic changes and reclaim a narrative to make a better future.  This gives us incredible hope and points to a major shift in the way that young people are trying to take control of the country’s destiny.

The years you spent with Koinange and Wachuka marked a particularly volatile time in Kenya. I’m curious, what personal evolutions did you observe among the women and the McMillan team, and how did it shape HTBAL? 

Looking back at the journey we followed, we see Shiro and Wachuka in the early years, very young and energetic with a powerful ideology fueling their work, but also very green and naive. But as the years went on and they suffered so many setbacks, the school of hard knocks forced them to change the way they work and become smarter and harder-skinned. As we observed them learning how to play the game of political power, fundraising, of construction and renovating, and winning over hearts and minds towards their important cause, we have witnessed a coming-of-age story that we personally learned so much from as observers. We hope that audiences can also benefit from watching these two formidable women transform into tomorrow’s future leaders.

What are some of the obstacles you faced while trying to realize HTBAL?

Making documentaries is an extremely difficult craft. As a husband-and-wife filmmaking team, on one side, you’re dealing with real people’s lives, and often, cameras can feel intrusive. But we do a lot of work to develop strong relationships with all of our protagonists, and that is often done in times spent without any cameras. We also felt a huge responsibility to tell a story that was balanced and also shows the flaws and deep challenges encountered by Shiro and Wachuka, as well as the librarians that have worked in the library for the past 20 to 30 years. And on the other side, since we also produce our own films, there were deep challenges trying to find support. We often self-financed the production costs but were also extremely lucky to find amazing support from organizations who saw the power of the story. These challenges carry on now as we try to find distribution for the film and reach audiences globally, which is more difficult than ever.

In HTBAL, you don’t shy away from discussing the government’s negligence and how it’s impacted the restoration of McMillan. What were your personal reactions while capturing its indifference?

We knew at the beginning that it was never going to be a walk in the park collaborating with local government, the challenge was how we show that both honestly and constructively. But we also spoke to many government workers who are deeply dedicated towards their work, despite very low pay and next to no appreciation and also feel frustration with the system. It was infuriating to witness the extreme potential for what Wachuka and Shiro were trying to do be squandered by a bureaucracy that prevented them from reaching that full potential. And while the end goal of the project is yet to be reached, we do see in the film the massive triumphs and successful renovations of two community libraries connected to McMillan that are servicing tens of thousands of people every month. And for that both Book Bunk and the Nairobi County government can share the credit. 

What do you hope viewers take away from HTBAL?

Hope. We wanted to tell a story that demonstrates how anyone can take a stand and make the changes needed to build the society that we want. This is never easy and is often draining and filled with emotions of hopelessness — but if we can figure out how to stick with it and work together, it can have profound changes on thousands of people’s lives.
The post ‘How To Build A Library’ Directors On Why Libraries Are So Important In Countries Like Kenya appeared first on Blavity.



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