Who is Gabriel Dinda?

Gabriel Dinda is a naturally motivated passionate writer. Others prefer to call me the Founder and CEO of Writers Guild Kenya, however I only consider myself a Project Manager of God’s project (Writers Guild Kenya). I am a former student of Economics and Finance at Kenyatta University and a former CPA Student at Strathmore University. I am a greatly passionate writer, having written in a number of platforms including blogs, and recently a co-author of a ‘Youth Unemployment in Kenya; a Ticking time Bomb’.

Talking of Writers Guild Kenya, how did it start and what is it all about?

Simply, Writers Guild Kenya is an incubation Center for Writers. Based in I and M Building, 9th Floor under Entrepreneurs Incubation Platform, African Garage, the organization aims to grow writing and encourage reading among the youth and at the same time create careers in the writing field. In a bid to encourage reading and grow writing, the organization has spread its wings in a number of regions in Kenya now having branches in Kakamega, Eldoret, Mombasa and having three branches in Nairobi in Kenyatta University, Makini School and the Head Office. We use Institutions of Learning as our bases of operations because it enables us to get to many young people, most of whom have a bright future in writing.

Our Vision is to be an internationally recognized Centre for Writers offering quality writing and related services. Started in Kenyatta University in 2014 as a Club, the organization has now grown to provide a number of writing services including publishing and created platform to grow writing.

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Take us through a typical day in the life of Gabriel?

I wake up mostly at 4.30am though the time is dependent on the time I sleep. I have a rule to sleep only for 5 hours, so I just add the 5 hours on the time I sleep. Upon waking up, I take about 30 minutes for Morning devotion(prayers), after which I start reading for the next two hours. It is only then that my day starts, thereafter  I prepare and leave the house for work. I really don’t have a record of getting to the office early as others would prefer because I am at my strongest point in the morning so I prefer doing something very productive, more productive than staying in the jam.

In the office, which is another name for field work, I majorly walk around looking for opportunities, so I knock at a lot of doors. I am really not a fan of staying behind the laptop in the office. I only do that as a follow up upon looking for opportunities physically or by attending meetings and events. Most of my time is spent in events and meetings. I am rarely in office unless there are appointments. I am mostly there on Tuesday and Friday. My day ends at 7pm when I become unavailable to all business calls or engagements, unless arranged prior. I am in the journey of preparing to be the best father and of course the best husband (now that our society is greatly in need of such).

Are you dating, now that you have talked of being the best father?

Yes, I am. However, more information on this will be available as time goes by. Be sure, your seat is reserved at the wedding.

Was Writing your  passion while growing up?

No, not at all. Actually, I didn’t know much about it. While growing up, I really did not know what I wanted. At some point I thought I would be a lawyer, because that was the only career I kept hearing people talking about. Then after finishing Form Four, my brother(who is a CPA-K), influenced me to pursue CPA and finally Economics and Finance. As you can see clearly, I really never had any goal and therefore was just subject to people’s influence and wishes.

So, how did Writing come about?

My journey to being a writer started in late 2013. I was a student then, now full time at KU. Immediately, I stepped in KU, I knew something for sure, that I wanted to do something alongside academics. I didn’t know what this would be. So, I started off from photography, but I never managed to go far(story for another day), then I went on to singing(another story for tomorrow). Both did not succeed. However, I had a thing for writing, I would write about all the things that occurred to me. One day, I wrote an article and presented to Career Office, which gave me a platform to start off; Career Focus Magazine. I got other chances to write for other magazines and met a number of writers. I realized that most of the writers had identical problems, so I decided to start a platform to provide the solution to the problems and so Writers Guild Kenya came about.

 

Having interacted with many youths and even written on Unemployment in Kenya, what can you say of our Education Sector in Kenya and the employment status?

Our Education system is good, according to me.However, the only place I fault it is its tendency to teach us to depend on others for soutions to our problems. It has taught us to depend on the teacher(lecturer), to learn, to depend on the academics to read, to depend on employers to be employed, to depend on ‘sponsors’ to survive, to depend on white collar job to be fashionable, to depend on everything to be everything. This is my only problem with it. If it only taught us to be self reliant, if it only taught us to generate solutions, we would have been way better.

In regards to unemployment, and as rightfully indicated in the book, it is a ticking time bomb which is just waiting to explode. Take this example, draft a message, calling for internship in your company(even an imaginary company), and circulate it in Whatsapp and monitor the number and nature of applications you will receive.  You will be sure to receive applications to hundreds and even from Masters graduates and PhDs. It is that bad. The only thing that will take us away from this is re-looking into the idea of Entrepreneurship and Self reliance.

So, how does Writers Guild Kenya raise its money?

We offer writing services to individuals and companies. So upon training the young writers, we use them as consultants by getting companies interested in writing services and ‘employing’ these writers to write for them. Most of all, remember I mentioned earlier that Writers Guild Kenya is a God’s project, so the project owner-God normally finances us.

With the amazing work you do I am sure you have been recognized on a larger scale, what are some of the awards that you have gotten?

In 2014, I was awarded as Overall Best Student in Liberty and Entrepreneurship Camp, Uganda. I was awarded Top 25 Under 25 Entrepreneur in Kenya, 2015 and also an Exemplary Leadership Award in 2015 by Kenyatta University in 2015. I am yet to receive my ultimate award of changing the world through Writers Guild Kenya and growing people.

What are some of the milestones you have achieved as Writers Guild Kenya?

We have greatly achieved and we thank God for it. In summary:

2014-Managed to mobilize Writers into believing that meaningful gains can be made in writing/reading.

2015-Started branches in Kakamega, Eldoret, Mombasa and Nairobi.

Formed strategic partnerships with other organizations.

2016-Published 41 young new generational authors in an amazing Poetry Anthology: Through the Journey of Hope.

What are some of your plans for Writers Guild  Kenya for the next 5 years?

Our goal(vision), as mentioned earlier is to be an International Centre. We simply want to achieve that in all aspects. Our main focus is growing our writers fully and making the writing and reading field, lucrative again in the world.

Advice to the young people?

It is such a great privilege to be a young person, because we have the time to create what we want. Let’s do just that. We were created for a purpose and achieving that should be our sole purpose. So, please, implement that idea you have in mind now, and God will bless you through it.

Last words…

If you are a passionate writer, or you think you can be, please contact me through gdinda@writersguildke.com and I will explain to you what you are sitting on.