How Book Bunk is reclaiming Nairobi’s public libraries as living cultural institutions through restoration, archiving, and community programming.
When Angela Wachuka and her co-founder, writer Wanjiru Koinange, walked into the McMillan Memorial Library in Nairobi, what they encountered was a building carrying more history than its ageing infrastructure could sustain. Like many public cultural institutions across the continent, it had for years faced the quiet pressure of under-resourcing, a basement archive of thousands of documents, photographs, and manuscripts slowly losing the battle against time. The building had simply outgrown what available resources could maintain.
That visit became a conviction. In 2017, Book Bunk was founded to help public libraries become what communities needed them to be.
With support from the Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth programme, Book Bunk developed and executed a community-led restoration strategy that transformed three of Nairobi's public libraries into fully functioning, inclusive cultural spaces.
The revitalised spaces now provide free WiFi, personal computers, and extended opening hours. Alongside the physical restoration, Book Bunk introduced programming rooted in community need, including an arts and culture curriculum anchored in African music, legal awareness clinics, and digital literacy workshops serving both librarians and patrons.
The archival work has been equally significant. Working alongside 30 student interns, Book Bunk catalogued over 137,000 books at McMillan and began digitising a historic archive dating back to 1904. The Cultural Protection Fund enabled the restoration and digitisation of over 49,000 items, a critical step in safeguarding Kenya's pre and post-colonial heritage for generations to come.
37 projects across 10 countries funded through the ACP-EU Ignite Culture programme
Further support from the ACP-EU Ignite Culture Fund, implemented by HEVA Fund in partnership with the British Council, deepened that reach, expanding public programming and equipping Book Bunk with a partnership toolkit to share its restoration model with cultural institutions across the continent.
Angela remains committed to taking that model further and advocating for policies that strengthen the creative sector and nurturing a vision that Book Bunk could one day open across Africa.
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