Nobel Prize eludes Ngugi wa Thiong'o yet again

NAIROBI, KENYA: French historical author Patrick Modiano beat Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o to bag the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Ngugi had been touted by The Guardian, a British daily, as the frontrunner for the Sh98.4 million prize alongside Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.

This is the second time the prestigious prize is eluding Ngugi. He was expected to bag it in 2010 but lost it to Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian novelist.

The BBC reported that according to the Swedish Academy that selects the Nobel Laureates in Literature, the award is usually for "the art of memory".

It quotes Peter Englund, the academy's permanent secretary, as saying that Modiano has written many books that are about memory, identity and aspiration.

According to the Nobel Prize organisation, awarding the top prize is based on an overall assessment of a nominee's work.

"It's a life's work that is rewarded, not individual books," he says.

Despite missing the award for the second time, Ngugi, one of Kenya's most celebrated literary minds, has in the past won numerous other awards.