KAMPALA — Ugandan novelist, lawyer and playwright Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has announced the publication and distribution of a new edition of his legal thriller Wanyita in West Africa by Abibiman Publishing House.
Rukirabashaija announced the development in a social media post, sharing images of the new edition and describing Wanyita as an “erotic legal thriller.”
The novel follows George Bahati, a Ugandan lawyer whose relationship with Veronica Magara takes a dramatic turn after the two survive a plane crash. When Veronica later dies, Bahati is arrested and charged with her rape and murder.
The story then moves from romance and survival into the courtroom, with Bahati forced to defend himself against evidence that appears to implicate him in Veronica’s death.
The title Wanyita derives from a Runyankore-Rukiga expression meaning “you are killing me”. The phrase becomes significant in the novel as part of the evidence surrounding Veronica’s death.
The book examines questions around evidence, the reliability of witnesses and the exercise of judicial power as Bahati attempts to establish what happened to Veronica.
A description of the book says the novel explores “desire, survival, death and the search for justice” while questioning what happens when institutions responsible for establishing truth become entangled in deception.
The West African edition expands the reach of a work that has already been listed by booksellers in East Africa. Kenyan bookseller Kibanga Books lists Wanyita among Rukirabashaija’s works, while Nuria Books also carries the novel.
Rukirabashaija, who describes himself as a novelist, lawyer, playwright and satirist, is also the author of The Greedy Barbarian and Banana Republic: Where Writers Have No Country, among other works.
His writing has frequently combined fiction with questions about politics, law and power.
The publication of Wanyita in West Africa gives the novel a new readership across a region with its own long tradition of political and legal writing, while placing a Ugandan courtroom thriller within a broader African publishing market.
