Kenya Quotes

Say it for me, Rainy. No other man. ~ Kenya Wright

White exists on the periphery of life. Bleached bones connect us to death, but the white of milk and eggs, for example, speaks to us of life. ~ Kenya Hara

When resources are degraded, we start competing for them, whether it is at the local level in Kenya, where we had tribal clashes over land and water, or at the global level, where we are fighting over water, oil, and minerals. So one way to promote peace is to promote sustainable management and equitable distribution of resources. ~ Wangari Maathai

In 1985 as a teenager in Kenya, I was an adamant member of the Muslim Brotherhood. ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Stylistically speaking, Barack Obama could hardly be further from Jimmy Carter if he really had been born in Kenya. ~ Eric Alterman

My parents met in Kenya. My father is African, is Kenyan. The Kenyan side of my family was involved in the anti-colonial movement. ~ Tom Morello

In any case how many took the oath and are now licking the toes of the whiteman?No, you take an oath to confirm a choice already made. The decision to lay or not lay your life for the people lies in the heart. The oath is the water sprinkled on a man's head at baptism ~ Ngugi Wa Thiongo

And then there is the poet Kenneth Koch, who while travelling in Kenya came to a railroad crossing at which this sign was posted: One train may hide another. This was meant, of course, as a warning to drivers of the fact that the train you see may not be the only train to reckon with, but it also meant, as Koch points out in his poem, that there are many things in this life that conceal other things. One letter may mean another is on the way; one hitch-hiker may deliberately hide another one by the side of the road; offer to carry one bag and you may find there is another one hidden behind it, with the result that you must carry two. And so on through life. Do not count on things coming in ones. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

I shuddered at the thought of what I would do for her if she asked - kill, steal, desecrate the holy god Ambi, destroy cities and masses of people just at her command. ~ Kenya Wright

Just across the ocean in, say Kenya or Tanzania, a two-gender system is vital for the survival of most of the folks who live there. Men do men's work, women do women's work, and so it all gets done and the jackals can't get into the hut and eat grandpa. So, the future of the transgender movement is like the future of all human rights movements: whatever the state of things in your area now, with some work it all gets a little bit better all the time, even if it is sometimes three steps ahead and two steps back. ~ Kate Bornstein

Now right here, where the borders of South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya all come together, there's a patch of land, perhaps 14 or 15 thousand square kilometers - about the size of Montenegro - that is contested. This is just some unpopulated marginal cattle grazing country that is a hot soggy sponge in the rainy season and then a scorching hot griddle in the dry season. There are just a few villages, and most of those are just seasonally occupied. ~ James Wesley, Rawles

Today, the witch theory of causality has fallen into disuse, with the exception of a few isolated pockets in Papua New Guinea, India, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Tanzania, Kenya, or Sierra Leone, where "witches" are still burned to death. A 2002 World Health Organization study, for example, reported that every year more than 500 elderly women in Tanzania alone are killed for being "witches." In Nigeria, children by the thousands are being rounded up and torched as "witches," and in response the Nigerian government arrested a self-styled bishop named Okon Williams, who it accused of killing 110 such children. ~ Michael Shermer

Pleasure and pain.
That was my Melody.
She was my poison
so toxic, when sampled,
yet,
so sweet ... ~ Kenya Wright

Looking at Mount Kenya in the morning is a holistic experience. I go back at least once a year. ~ Jochen Zeitz

He smiled and captured my hand ... I attempted to pull my hand away. He tightened his grip just a little and kept my hand encased in his. A warmth spread through to me. ~ Kenya Wright

1) Everyone nodded in silent agreement,
and then one by one
disappeared into the castle's dark shadows
where night met blackened air
and creepy things
whispered the most haunting words into the wind. ~ Kenya Wright

This is why I don't drink, she thought to herself before everything shut down. ~ Kenya Moss-Dyme

The nation is sick; trouble is in the land, confusion all around ... But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee, the cry is always the same: 'We want to be free.' ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

African women in general need to know that it's OK for them to be the way they are - to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence. ~ Wangari Maathai

Kenya doesn't have much of an infrastructure for hosting a film. ~ Ralph Fiennes

I call you domina because that's what you are," Samuel insisted.
"It's what I was. Now I'm just Brie. What if I only called you pathfinder? ~ Kenya Wright

Third World is a state of the mind and until we change our attitude as Africans, if there is a fourth, fifth and even sixth world, we will be in it. ~ Patrick L.O. Lumumba

Why not just hope to fuck me hard?"
"Because fucking you would never be enough. ~ Kenya Wright

In 2013, science writer Natalie Angier gave the centrality of female friendship a zoological boost, pointing out that, In animals as diverse as African elephants and barnyard mice, blue monkeys of Kenya and feral horses of New Zealand, affiliative, long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships between females turns out to be the basic unit of social life. ~ Rebecca Traister

We learned a new way to consume each other, without the need for any drug or conflict. We smothered each other in kisses and dreams of our future and poetic wishes that ended in moans. Our addictions shifted to our obsession with us. ~ Kenya Wright

Successful communication depends on how well we listen, rather than how well we push our opinions on the person seated before us. ~ Kenya Hara

If I thought I'd been drawn to her, now I knew, I'd been taken,
kidnapped,
caged,
destroyed,
and all the other things that went with someone having complete power over another. ~ Kenya Wright

We filled the night air with light and shone brighter than all those millions of glittering stars watching us from the sky. ~ Kenya Wright

Nothing is bigger than art. ~ Kenya Wright

I want you to go back to your memories and count the times you failed and then, count the times you broke through those barriers to win again. ~ Kenya Wright

Southall Broadway, in west London, has been a constant part of my life from the day I arrived in England as a baby from Kenya in 1962. My parents rented a room in one of the terraces off the Broadway, and I've seen it change from an ordinary English high street to what is now 'Little India.' with a confident Asian community. ~ Gurinder Chadha

The coffin was handmade from the wood of a single Eucalyptus tree. There were no handles, it rested on the shoulders of six elegant tribesmen. These were Maasai from Kenya, the warrior tribe, known for their courage and endurance. The walkers followed at a respectful distance, the pace was grueling. ~ Nick Hahn

She held her hand out in front of her. "Wait."
"No," I groaned and then cleared my throat. "I mean okay, I can wait. ~ Kenya Wright

Trust me. There were tons of options."
I rubbed my eyes with both hands. "You have my name on your shoulder. I don't even know what I should do with this. If someone told me that a guy that they'd just met a few weeks ago, had their name drawn permanently on them, I would say run really fast and change your phone number."
"That wouldn't be good advice in my case. I run fast too." He shrugged. "I would catch you. ~ Kenya Wright

Kenya Moore is everything to me. She's everything. ~ Casey Wilson

Throughout my life, I have never stopped to strategize about my next steps. I often just keep walking along, through whichever door opens. I have been on a journey and this journey has never stopped. When the journey is acknowledged and sustained by those I work with, they are a source of inspiration, energy and encouragement. They are the reasons I kept walking, and will keep walking, as long as my knees hold out. ~ Wangari Maathai

We are for aiding our allies by sharing some of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 countries. We are helping 107 We spent $146 billion. With that money, we bought a 2-million-dollar yacht for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenya government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no electricity. ~ Ronald Reagan

Entire countries are reduced to their metonyms. Kenya is a safari, Norway is fjords. And Switzerland is mountains. This is an exaggeration, but the truth in it is worth thinking about: it is a country built largely in the lee of the Alps, the towns and cities formed from old human migrations that came to rest in valleys, on lakeshores, and, sometimes, in higher regions. I had a notion: if I could understand the mountains, I could understand the country." (from "Known and Strange Things" by Teju Cole) ~ Teju Cole

He carries home in the way he walks: an elegant, loose strut. He wears home on his skin in the form of attar, a delicious perfume that makes me dream of Somali coastlines, places where children play football amidst colonial ruins, and young men like Korfa flee in darkness on boats to Yemen and Kenya, determined never to look back. ~ Diriye Osman

I know you've been through an ordeal, but you don't want to start drowning yourself in liquor. You'll find that it's easy to do, but by the time you realize it could start to be a problem, you're already over that cliff. ~ Kenya Wright

I started as an engineer. I migrated to philosophy and international politics. And I did my studies about African - Africa democracy and democratization in Africa, taking Kenya as a model. And then, while I was doing so in 1996 in South Africa, Al Jazeera was established. So they requested me to be an analyst on African affairs. ~ Wadah Khanfar

Kenya is rapidly developing its industry and manufacturing, and its cultural identity as a new country. We had a humongous history pre-British, and when we were colonized and violently reshuffled, we had to decide who we were again. We couldn't rest on the stories and the cultures of our great-grandparents. ~ Wangechi Mutu

Globalization has made copper and other minerals more valuable, and Ghana and Kenya have recently discovered mineral resources. ~ Bill Gates

Is it my power ripening or the natural will of a man to want to control what he thinks is his? It didn't matter. Blood would paint the streets if another touched her. ~ Kenya Wright

I'd loved for five long years, where pain had mingled with kisses and Michael's hugs suffocated me so much that I wasn't sure I could wriggle away enough to gasp for air. It was purple love, ugly and endearing, passionate and bruising like the tiny plum marks one left from sucking on a lover's neck. After loving like that, one needed a break ... ~ Kenya Wright

Kiss the blackest part of my behind. ~ Kenya Moore

Living in South Africa and periodically coming back to Kenya, my relationship with officialdom in Kenya was just insane. ~ Binyavanga Wainaina

We live in a country where our young ladies who have recently attained the age of puberty cannot afford sanitary pads, but our men and women in public offices have ipads which they do not even know how to use. ~ Patrick L.O. Lumumba

I'd love to do a safari holiday somewhere in Africa - maybe Kenya or Tanzania. I have never been, and we've deliberately waited until the children are older so that they could appreciate it, learn something and come back with stories. ~ Louise Nurding

Why let me heal when you'll just break me anyway?"
"Because breaking you is half the fun. ~ Kenya Wright

For countries such as Kenya to emerge as economic powerhouses, they need better infrastructure: roads, ports, smart grids and power plants. Infrastructure is expensive, and takes a long time to build. In the meantime, hackers are building 'grassroots infrastructure,' using the mobile-phone system to build solutions that are ready for market. ~ Ethan Zuckerman

It used to be that when I made mistakes like this or came close to losing my life, I would just call Miguel. He'd drop it all to come to me - his movies, media engagements no matter how big they were, and even his criminal activities went on hold for me. It made me think he cared.
Miguel canceled an appearance on the Dave Letterman show just because he called me and thought my voice sounded like something was wrong.
He directed his gaze to the bruises decorating my face. "You said you weren't hurt."
With those big arms, he picked me up and slammed the door behind us. "When I ask you if you're okay, you tell me the truth. ~ Kenya Wright

The essence of design ... lies in the process of discovering a problem shared by many people and trying to solve it. ~ Kenya Hara

Vagina Whisperer. ~ Kenya Wright

These White House scandals are not going away anytime soon. People in Kenya are now saying he's 100 percent American. That's how bad it's gotten. ~ Jay Leno

Fine, I'll live. Just give me time to fill the void you left. ~ Kenya Wright

Zimbabwe has far fewer tourists than South Africa or Kenya, and there's less crime as well. ~ Nicholas Kristof

You see how good I'm being for you? I haven't ripped out any hearts or anything. ~ Kenya Wright

In Kenya women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who provide food for their families. ~ Wangari Maathai

Paying for a taxi ride using your mobile phone is easier in Nairobi than it is in New York, thanks to Kenya's world-leading mobile-money system, M-PESA.'1 This was the opening paragraph in The Economist's article of 27 May 2013, 'Why does Kenya lead the world in mobile money? ~ Victor Kgomoeswana

Kenya DOES NOT belong to 2 tribes only. Kenya has 42 tribes. to say that the decision of 2 tribes is the decision of the whole country is fallacy and outright dictatorship and tribalism
Akuku Mach Pep, Democracy on Trial ~ Akuku Mach Pep

I went to L.A., and I was on two different studio movies at Fox and Sony, but they were never made in the end. When the second one wasn't happening, I ended up doing an episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' for the BBC, and went on a roots trip from England to Kenya, India, and pre-partition India in Pakistan, where my family originally came from. ~ Gurinder Chadha

Kenya, Kazakhstan and K Street too? Yes ... that all of God's people might love and serve him with gladness and singleness of heart, in our various vocations taking the wounds of the world into our hearts - the heartaches and longings, sorrows and disappointments, and sometimes evil - and finding in that calling that our own hearts are healed too. In N.T. Wright's theologically rich image, becoming healed healers. May it be so. ~ Steven Garber

My corpse doesn't need a diamond throne. ~ Kenya Wright

There's always a price. ~ Kenya Wright

It is an aspect of Kenya I am always acutely aware of - and crave, because I don't have it all. My third language, Gikuyu, is nearly non-existent; I can't speak it. It is a phantom limb... ~ Binyavanga Wainaina

President Obama and his wife are going to Kenya. Donald Trump said, 'While you're there, pick up your birth certificate.' ~ David Letterman

Whether I gave him a chance or not, I relished in the fact that he'd remember me in years to come, ~ Kenya Wright

The Whiteman told of another country beyond the sea where a powerful woman sat on a throne while men and women danced under the shadow of her authority and benevolence. She was ready to spread the shadow to cover the Agikuyu. They laughed at this eccentric man whose skin had been so scalded that the black outside had peeled off. The hot water must have gone into his head.

Nevertheless, his words about a woman on the throne echoed something in the heart, deep down in their history. It was many, many years ago. Then women ruled the land of the Agikuyu. Men had no property, they were only there to serve the whims and needs of the women. Those were hard years. So they waited for women to go to war, they plotted a revolt, taking an oath of secrecy to keep them bound each to each in the common pursuit of freedom. They would sleep with all the women at once, for didn't they know the heroines would return hungry for love and relaxation? Fate did the rest; women were pregnant; the takeover met with little resistance. ~ Ngugi Wa Thiongo

Their faces showed beautiful smiles boasting magnificent teeth. Their skin gleamed in the perfect lighting. Even their scarred flesh seemed to hold its own intricate designs, as crazy as it seemed. Luscious curves still decorated their hips and the swell between their legs. They were striking and endearing like a tribe of taunting sirens on top of a cliff in the middle of the sea. I gazed at them for longer than I should have ... ~ Kenya Wright

A Masai warrior on a cellphone in the middle of Kenya has better mobile comm than President Reagan did 25 years ago. ~ Peter Diamandis

When you go somewhere like Kenya and you see how the children don't have pencils and pens, and all of these things are considered luxuries, and what a privilege they see education as and how hungry they are to learn, I wanted to give my brother and sister long lectures. That definitely stayed with me. ~ Naomie Harris

I ate three skittles at a time. One skittle didn't provide enough flavor. Two was a tease of sugar, yet four skittles in one bite drowned the senses. Therefore, the exact number of three served as the perfect harmony of candy goodness. ~ Kenya Wright

In Kenya, crime and terrorism are deeply linked, not least by the failure of successive Kenyan governments to control either. ~ Giles Foden

He drove into me hard, slipping into my slick tunnel with ease. "Who are you to me?"
My blood stirred in my veins from me just hearing the question. "You're queen. ~ Kenya Wright

What are you doing here?"
"Coming to pick you up for tonight."
"I'm not going."
"Would it help if I lowered to my knees and said please?" He started to go down.
I hit his shoulder. "Stop that. You're embarrassing me."
He dragged his gaze over my body. "You look beautiful."
"Whatever." I wore black yoga pants and a shirt with Star War's Yoda flipping the bird on the front.
"I love the way your clothes hug your body."
"I love the way you continue to invade my privacy. ~ Kenya Wright

Those have to be the most romantic words I've heard in my life." I stepped up to him and poked his chest. "You don't ever talk to me that way. ~ Kenya Wright

I think I could have loved you. ~ Kenya Wright

At independence Kenya's economic indicators were equal to those of South Korea, but 45 years down the road, Korea's economy is 40 times that of Kenya. The mediocrity of leadership is across the continent . ~ Raila Odinga

Merrill Meewee knew his stones. As a boy in Kenya, skipping stones was his favorite free-time activity. There had been an abundance of saucer-shaped missiles on the banks of his father's own fishpond. Fat, river-smoothed disks, they skipped ten, twelve, sixteen times before slipping beneath the surface with a watery plop. His father, a man of little wealth but great forbearance, was not pleased with his boy's solitary pastime, but he never ordered him to stop. Instead, he asked the boy how many stones he thought the pond could hold. I don't know, Meewee remembered answering. A hundred thousand?

Oh, such a big number! And how many stones do you suppose you've thrown already?

Merrill, who was an excellent student, calculated the number of stones he might have tossed in an hour and how many free hours were left each day after school and chores, how many afternoons in how many years since he first discovered the sport. I would estimate 14,850, he informed his father with a certain amount of swagger.

His father was impressed. So many? And all of them have gone to the bottom?

Of course they've gone to the bottom, he had said, embarrassed by his father's apparent ignorance. They're stones. They're heavier than water.

And heavier than fishes?

Of course heavier than fishes.

Good, good, his father concluded, patting him on the head. Keep at it, son, and soon I won't have to work so hard.

Fat ~ David Marusek

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

He's not going to stop this. He's really going to kill himself. ~ Kenya Wright

... he grabbed my hand again. That same warmth hit me, seeping into my skin. I bit my lip and forced myself not to relish in the tingling heat. Samuel's eyes widened. Fangs erupted from his gums. His nostrils flared as he inhaled me. ~ Kenya Wright

Asleep? That's what she is right now?" Pure menace laced his words. "And when you decide to answer that question, Kane, be sure that you answer this with great care. I for one see you as my friend. We've never had problems. But now you've met my Melody, and problems cannot be avoided. So when I ask you, is she asleep, be sure that you give me a clear answer, because different ones will result in your death and the slashing away of every fucking person you know. ~ Kenya Wright

She needs her freedom, but I won't let her have it. ~ Kenya Wright

Colonial governors and senior civil servants are not easy people to argue with, and I was not popular because of my criticism of the colonial service in Kenya. ~ Louis Leakey

Come here. I told you to go to sleep and you wouldn't go, so now you'll have to take care of me. ~ Kenya Wright

It is virtually impossible to control Northern Kenya, which is populated chiefly by migrant nomads. ~ Richard Leakey

Earlier, 100,000 elephants lived in Kenya and we didn't have any noteworthy problem with it. The problem that we have is not that there are now more elephants. ~ Richard Leakey

In Kenya, I met wonderful girls; girls who wanted to help their communities. I was with them in their school, listening to their dreams. They still have hope. They want to be doctor and teachers and engineers. ~ Malala Yousafzai

Why do so many today want to wander off to South Africa or Kenya or India or Russia or Honduras or Costa Rica or Peru to help with justice issues but not spend the same effort in their own neighborhood or community or state? Why do young suburbanites, say in Chicago, want to go to Kentucky or Tennessee to help people but not want to spend that same time to go to the inner city in their own area to help with justice issues? I asked this question to a mature student in my office one day, and he thought he had a partial explanation: 'Because my generation is searching for experiences, and the more exotic and extreme the better. Going down the street to help at a food shelter is good and it is just and some of us are doing that, but it's not an experience. We want experiences. ~ Scot McKnight

Like Beji, our country is a nation whose citizens has employed crooked means of survival, lives in the expense of others, cares the least about their compatriots, and are ever more than willing to do anything conceivable to plunge every vulnerable life into a pitch-dark abyss! It is, you will realize, a lovely den of hungry wolves whose ugly claws often extend a cold handshake to every beggar in the next turn... ~ Levi Cheruo Cheptora

Culture is the celebration of diversity. Let us therefore not deny our origin; but instead celebrate ours as a cultural mosaic not a tower of Babel , but a power of Babel ~ Ali A. Mazrui

Do me a favor. Go to the mirror, look at yourself, and then tell me if I should value your opinions. Your pants are still open by the way. ~ Kenya Wright

I beg young people to travel. If you don't have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you're going to see your country differently, you're going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You're going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It's not what Tom Friedman writes about; I'm sorry. You're going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can't get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people - Americans and Europeans - come back and go, ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on. ~ Henry Rollins

Umm. Well ... I don't know what the first sign is. You see ... I'm ... a little blind. My eyesight is really bad. For example, I have no idea what any of you look like. ~ Kenya Wright

I don't think Kenya is the only country that tries to induce amnesia - it seems to be a global phenomenon. But offenses do not die. They do not disappear. ~ Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

I'm also hard at work on plans for the Obama Library. And some have suggested that we put it in my birthplace, but I'd rather keep it in the United States.
Did anybody not see that joke coming? Show of hands. ~ Barack Obama

Yes. I long to break you. It's all I've been thinking about since we ate dinner last night. ~ Kenya Wright

And you're absolutely breathtaking. ~ Kenya Wright