kenya

"If it were influenza or smallpox that was carrying off people by the million, or even bubonic plague, perhaps people could have talked about it. But at that time in Kenya, AIDS was not talked about in polite society. This was mainly because of its association with homosexuality. In Kenya, as Mr. Malik knew only too well, no one's son or daughter is gay. But what is talked about is different from what is."

"Mr. Malik was diligent in abiding by all the rules, but knew the rules were so often a matter of interpretation. Though he might fill in all the forms, forms can get lost. Just like the telephone company, any regulatory body with any power in Kenya runs two services—a formal one to process the paperwork, and an informal one to ensure the paperwork is processed. If you expect your forms not to get lost and rules to be correctly interpreted, you are expected to pay for both."

"The very name of the [Kenyan] committee, “Senate’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Proliferation of Religious Organizations,” is objectionable. It implies that the fact that religious organizations “proliferate” in Kenya is in itself a problem or a nuisance. It is not. In a democratic society, it is a sign that freedom of religion or belief is protected."

"It is that great roof of the African world where, beneath the silver heads of the Mountains of the Moon, came down in ancient days those waters and races which founded Egypt."

"Well, you know India and Kenya have very old historical links. They go back millennia because we are both Indian Ocean bordering countries. So people from the Western shores of India came through the monsoon to the Eastern Coast of Africa. So, regional trade has been going on for a long time. We have Indian communities settling along your coast, for example, in Mombasa, Lamu etc. We have very old Indian communities there. Then of course during the colonial period, Indians came to East Africa, particularly Kenya, to help in the building of the Mombasa-Uganda Railway. Then they stayed on, became proud citizens of Kenya. So what I am doing is basically building a bond that has very strong foundation. I am just strengthening what we already have. I am very lucky because I came when when we just had the India-Africa Summit, the third of its kind, to which His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta participated. He had a very large delegation. He had a very good bilateral meeting with our Prime Minister and we hope that there will be a return visit soon from India. Besides this, of course trade relationship is very good, very strong. India is one of Kenya's leading trade partners and we hope to take this forward. There is a lot of Indian investment coming into Kenya and that is good for both countries. We have a similar developing country experience. We are good partners, for example, we have extended some lines of credit in the power sector. We are due to complete that project [power sector] in a couple of months and we also have other proposals in various sectors."

"Kenya is a country where you are guilty until proven rich. Kenya's poor are five times more likely to be shot dead by the police who are meant to protect them than by criminals."

"One major problem in Africa from a capitalist viewpoint was how to induce Africans to become laborers or cash-crop farmers. In some areas, such as West Africa, Africans had become so attached to European manufactures during the early period of trade that, on their own initiative, they were prepared to go to great lengths to participate in the colonial money economy. But that was not the universal response. In many instances, Africans did not consider the monetary incentives great enough to justify changing their way of life so as to become laborer or cash-crop farmers. In such cases, the colonial state intervened to use law, taxation, and outright force to make Africans pursue a line favorable to capitalist profits. When colonial governments seized African lands, they achieved two things simultaneously. They satisfied their own citizens (who wanted mining concessions or farming land) and they created the conditions whereby landless Africans had to work not just to pay taxes but also to survive. In settler areas such as Kenya and Rhodesia the colonial government also prevented Africans from growing cash crops so that their labor would be available directly for the whites. One of the Kenya white settlers, Colonel Grogan, put it bluntly when he said of the Kikuyu: “We have stolen his land. Now we must steal his limbs. Compulsory labor is the corollary of our occupation of the country.”"