Founder works sourced from makenabrandon.co.ke: books, Church Thoughts articles, and poems. Free works link to reading pages; print books show order links where available.
New · Free to read · DPL-000100002
My Encounter and Life With the Queen of the Bees and the Yaaku People
by Makena Brandon · Published by Discussion Publishers · Sponsored by Utu Heritage
Juliana, The Queen of the Bees follows Juliana Loshiro — one of the youngest fluent speakers of Yaakunte and a beekeeper who reads a hive the way others read weather — across four days of tea and mandazi, fire and nyama choma, an elder's gifted log hive, and cave walls painted long before anyone called this place Laikipia. It is a portrait of the Yaaku: a people whose language, forest and bees survive only together.
Essay · Indigenous Culture & Conservation
My Encounter and Life With the Queen of the Bees and the Yaaku People — a long-form dispatch from Doldol and Mukogodo Forest on Juliana Loshiro, the Yaaku, the endangered Yaakunte language and traditional beekeeping. Published by Discussion Publishers. Free to read online.
Essay · Human Rights & Culture
A personal dispatch from Marsabit County on Rendille beauty, dignity, and the early marriage of girls. Published by Discussion Publishers, sponsored by Utu Heritage, images by Natalie Seini. Free to read.
Philosophy
A philosophical journey into the core of human existence — what gives life purpose and meaning.
Identity & Culture
A powerful narrative about displacement, identity, and the search for belonging.
Mental Health & Faith
An exploration of autism from personal and theological perspectives, with compassion for neurodiversity.
Faith & Society
An examination of faith, politics, power, justice, and the prophetic voice in modern society.
Memoir & Education
Moses' journey from adversity to triumph — a testament to perseverance in academic and spiritual pursuit.
Church Thoughts · Faith
A reflection from Sweetwaters Altar on why sin exists, why God allowed temptation, and the difference between desire and destiny.
Church Thoughts · Faith
A reflection on intimacy, covenant, and the parts of us that desire touches beyond the body.
Church Thoughts · Faith & Society
A moral and scriptural reflection on dignity, poverty, responsibility, and the heart of God toward those who suffer want.
Church Thoughts · Faith
A confessional reflection on memory, guilt, childhood wrongs, gossip, hate, and what God remembers.
Church Thoughts · Faith
A meditation on James 3 — why so small an organ carries so much weight across a lifetime.
The Blood Between Us · Ep 01
They taught me that love was supposed to hurt a little — a poem on family, harm, and hidden bruises.
Confessional · In My Twenties
I looked upon the faults of others and called myself wise — only to discover those same faults within me.
Redemptive
The deepest scars create the strongest souls; a poem of fire, ash, survival, and blooming again.
Confessional
A village with two doors in every house becomes a meditation on hidden sin and public life.
Philosophical
A spacious garden, a lone seed, and lit lamps become a philosophical letter to mystery.
Spiritual
I battled God and lost — a spiritual poem about anger, silence, refusal, surrender, and grace.
