Kenya Quotes

“Violence was a slippery slope, lubricated by a lot of blood, if history had any lessons to teach.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“The spring breeze felt like the warm breath of a child on Kumiko’s face. It played delicately with her hair like tiny fingers, and made the trees whisper a breathless song.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“Even adults who were stiffened by the starch of their miserable lives, for whom breaking the stony discipline of austere and judgmental intolerance was usually off the table, melted in the magical luminescence and energetic charm of the pre-pubescent Ruka.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“The optimism was like the sun after a long spell of clouds and rain, a euphoric rush which produced both envy and awe in anyone who had become jaded, resigned, who had given up on their dreams.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“The regular choreography, entrances and exits of blooms in stages such that the garden looked like an ever-evolving carousel of swirling rainbows and radiant butterflies, seemed condensed. All of the flowers still obeyed some silent urgent command to make their debut. But this year, it definitely unfolded more quickly, as if racing to meet a new compelling deadline.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“Hungry stomachs growl the same tune.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“It was the fundamental bifurcation of the masses of human meat into two starkly opposite classes: the haves and the have-nots. The have-nots had barely anything. The haves had it all. The haves had everything except concern and compassion for the have-nots, who they regarded as little more than cockroaches.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“Our fathers fought bravely. But do you know the biggest weapon unleashed by the enemy against them? It was not the Maxim gun. It was division among them. Why? Because a people united in faith are stronger than the bomb”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, A Grain of Wheat

“A good investment is like a good fruit tree. From its conception, it grows exponentially larger consistently and reliably. It’s required input in a small percentage of its output. It regularly gives back to the broader ecosystem, helping multiple other lives to prosper. And it produces an abundance of fruit for the enjoyment of its owner.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic

“Our people think: I , Wangari, a Kenyan by birth - how can I be a vagrant in my own country as if I were a foreigner.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Devil on the Cross

“When art as an expression starts to appear, without prompting, all over the suburbs and villages of this country, what we are saying is: we are confident enough to create our own living, our own entertainment, our own aesthetic. Such an aesthetic will not be donated to us from the corridors of a university; or from the Ministry of Culture, or by the French Cultural Centre. It will come from the individual creations of a thousand creative people”
― Binyavanga Wainaina, Kwani? 1

“I have learned that I, we, are a dollar-a-day people (which is terrible, they say, because a cow in Japan is worth $9 a day). This means that a Japanese cow would be a middle class Kenyan... a $9-a-day cow from Japan could very well head a humanitarian NGO in Kenya. Massages are very cheap in Nairobi, so the cow would be comfortable.”
― Binyavanga Wainaina

“If the nations of Africa desired to assure the prosperity of the next 25 generations of African people, they would get together and collaborate on establishing a continental Permaculture Economy. And they would do that immediately. That would be a wise investment.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“The year the Europeans seized Jomo Kenyatta (1952), Chepusepa and I were sharing our homestead with Arimo, a Teso, who was a headman of the local road crew. One day, Arimo's son found an ostrich's nest between Amudat and Katabok, while he was watching cattle. There were six eggs, and both of our cowherds took one. The brought the two eggs to our home and put them in the ashes near the fire. After two weeks, they hatched.
I remember the baby ostriches walking about, eating millet and stones. Arimo took care of them, and they grew quite large. One night a leopard got the female, but the male continued to thrive, and Arimo harvested its feathers twice. Then, one day, when it was fully grown, our ostrich wandered into the town of Amudat. A European saw it and asked the people, "Where did this come from?"
"Oh, it is the 'ox' of a man named Arimo, they told him.
The European immediately summoned Arimo to Amudat. "Do you have license to keep an ostrich?" he demanded.
"Of course not!" Arimo replied. "This ostrich doesn't belong to anyone else--it's mine. So why do I need a license?"
But the European decreed,"From this day on, you must not keep this ostrich without a license. If you do, you will go to jail for stealing from the government!"
That was only the beginning. The Europeans have been seizing our pet ostriches ever since. When other people heard about Arimo's trouble, they killed their ostriches so they could at least have the feathers. Another man was so angry, he killed his female ostrich and destroyed all her eggs.”
― Pat Robbins

“Shouldn't it be made a crime to vie for a position you can't deliver? We have a confused and compromised executive and an assembly of pigs providing checks and balances in Kenya.”
― DON SANTO

“There is a lot of money in Africa. There’s a lot of value being created by the people of Africa, from Egypt to Ghana to Zambia and everywhere in between. Ideas are flowing from African minds, innovations are emerging from African intellect, African businesses are providing solutions and valuable products and services. We are seeing it now and we will see it even more as the century progresses. As an investor, I’m putting big bets on Africa.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“Political conmanship has no place in Umoja, Nairobi, Kenya, or anywhere in the world. Let's avoid politicians and vote for leaders who will work hard and smart to ensure progress and sustainability.”
― DON SANTO

“Long live King DON SANTO! Long live the Badman Killa!”
― Runtown

“Whatever is happening in the Kenyan political scene is utter bad manners with refined impunity. Then we have the voters, the majority of whom are clueless about what the whole thing means to them.”
― DON SANTO

“The Kenyan Constitution should never be taken as a personal property or something to grab.”
― DON SANTO

“The best definition for the bottom up economic model is the people sitting on the wheelbarrow and the leaders lifting them up by the handle. The opposite is fraud and conmanship.”
― Njau Kihia

“Something is rotten in the Republic of Kenya.”
― Don Santo

“By investing in individual relationships, Alongsiders aims to bring about transformative change, one life at a time.”
― Heather Scott, Women Like Me: Kenyan Mothers Speak

“We lamented the fact that Kenyans are on the whole, so unchic.”
― Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Weight of Whispers

“Now, at Balafon, the exiles were silent, to accommodate the ghosts of saints: Bolikango…Kasavubu..Lumumba…Kalondji…Tshombe…”
― Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Weight of Whispers

“If you reach a point where you have to kill the people opposing you, just know you've failed as a leader. True leadership inspires change, not fear. If you must kill to silence dissent, you've already lost the moral ground.”
― Carson Anekeya

“Pentecostals cannot afford to ignore the practical situations that Kenyan masses find themselves in at the dawn of the 21st Century. They are obliged to come up with theologies that are local in character in response to local concerns”
― Susan Murimi

“In as much as Classical Pentecostal churches are not wholly given to the ‘prosperity gospel’, there is an observable heightened desire to invest and own property. What that portends is the extreme danger of being too ‘earthly’ to the extent of losing the spiritual fervour that characterised Pentecostal Christianity of the first decades.”
― Susan Murimi

“One of the major effects of independence on Pentecostalism was the growth of nationalism. The general feeling was one of transferring positions and authority from the missionaries to national leaders.”
― Susan Murimi

“Kenya has been rightly branded a “haven of missions.” However, this haven only emerged in the early 20th century, which is late compared to other missionary activities in West and South Africa. Though there had been Christian missionary activities as early as the 15th Century, their impact was short-lived, and Christianity had to be ‘reintroduced’ in the late 19th Century. Many missionary groups surged onto the Kenyan soil early in the 20th Century in a manner not witnessed among its neighbouring countries.”
― Susan Murimi