Women From Kenya

"It’s crazy. When I won the Boston Half, it’s when I was new. I had just started training with my coach and I saw that my training is paying off and all that stuff. Since then I kept going to races and getting better and better. This is where it all started, that year was when we started to get better...I’m excited. I love it here."

"I can tell you, my coach used to tell me ‘If you win Boston or big races like that, your life is going to change and everything is going to change.’ I was like ‘Oh yeah. I don’t think too, too much.’ But I can tell you it has changed a lot. Everywhere you go people stop and talk to me and say good luck, and want to know more about running...That’s one thing — I’m more inspired by it. Just how people are really into it, knowing it and wanting [to run more]. I go to the store and people stop me and that’s really good. It keeps me going."

"Coming back, every time is good and awesome...offering up some last minute advice. Make sure you have enough energy and are feeling yourself and know how much you still have left to go on the hills… Pace yourself."

"I’ve always equated clay with the humanity that’s within us, fragile like our bodies. It can tip over. You have it on its toes, but if you push just slightly on the wrong pivot, it will break your heart."

"Marathons are not for the fainthearted, so kudos to those who wished us well. We will strive to run at the summit as always and pray that we remain in good shape."

"I am not sure about my next race. But the idea is to go back on the drawing board and I believe I will be stronger and better with proper preparations,"

"I am happy that at least Kenya was on the podium. But looking at the situation critically, I still feel that I will continue being a star at least for the foreseeable future."

"We took up the challenge and gave it our all as the country's reputation was at stake."

"She was always encouraging us to push harder and up our game, so when she dropped out she urged us to continue putting pressure on our race adversaries."

"It was not easy in Oregon when Chepngetich pulled out. She is a champion and her experience would really have come in handy in our campaign for gold."

"The future is still bright for me. In athletics you win and lose some,"

"I may not have won gold in Oregon but the silver has definitely opened up many doors for me,"

"Ebbing: disappearing, becoming of the sea. Flowing: returning, rolling on the sands, returned to earth."

"Ayaana was surveying the longest line on the globe’s three dimensional grid, the equator, the first line of latitude. Her special point zero, 40,075 kilometers long; 78.7 percent across water, 21.3 percent over land, zero degrees, all the Kenya equator places she had never imagined to claim as her own: Nanyuki, Mount Kenya. The invisible equator line crossed only thirteen countries - Kenya, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, São Tomé and Principe, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia, and Kiribati - thirteen countries that were the center of the world, and hers was one of them."

"Ayaana would learn that there seemed to be no absolutes in the world, only codes and questions and a guarantee of storms."

"He would learn to always stoop to meet her eyes. She expected this: eye-to-eye conversations. She needed to see everything his soul suggested."

"On the map she looked at, there was no place marker for Pate Island. No color brown or green to suggest her own existence within the sea. So she wanted to know about places that could be rendered invisible.”"

"She would have to relinquish her feelings for water to the power of numbers, navigational compasses, Napier’s Rules, coordinates and geopolitics. She watched her lecturer. Could she propose that the sea sweats differently depending on the time and flavor of day and night? That there are doorways within the sea and portals in the wind? That she had heard the earth and moon and sea converge to sing a single storm-borne wind, and these had called her to dance, and that she had danced at night with them under a fecund moon?”"

"We know, nyara, that to name the unnamable is a curse [...] Even if you plant another story into silence, see, the buried thing returns to ask for its blood from the living."

"“There are presumptions, in the world as it is now framed, of who the worthy victim is and who merits the power of full witness,”"

"...of all making mediums, clay is the most versatile and pliable and naturally earthly, sympathetic and human."

"“The aim was to learn the skills I needed to go back to Kenya and maybe go into advertising, which was a growing business at the time.”"

"“There was something so soulless about it. For me, there wasn’t a justifiable rationale in advertising the merits of one soap against another.”"

"“They will say, ‘We did this because we believed in it, but now we want to encourage girls to go back to school,”"

"I dream of the day when To Revolutionary Type Love might become an icon, might be considered this different and powerful thing that came out of Kenya and spoke on behalf of many marginalised people, people who should be accepted as part of the fabric of society."

"“I’d never seen that before and was amazed at this poignant symbol, that her path to happiness was paved with beautiful messages on beautiful cloth.”"

"“I was a chauffeur for the bridal party. When the bride stepped out of the house, the ladies laid kangas all the way to the car for the bride to walk on,”"

"And once they see these videos, that's when they see the pain that these girls undergo, and that's when they say: 'I will not allow my daughter, or I will not allow my sister to undergo the same"

"Remember, they don't know how circumcision is done for girls or women, because they are not allowed to be there. ... They don't know where it's cut, or what is being done to them"

"In the whole process of circumcision, what we hate is the cut. All the rituals, blessings from cultural leaders, people dressing in their traditional clothes as dancing and singing our beautiful songs — it's not harmful. It's good"

"We are simply saying let's retain the good part of our culture, because we have so much that is good in our culture that we don't have to do away with"

"And the second toast is to my elder sister, Soila, she was with me the first time I ran away, but the next time I escaped, she gave up because of the beatings we received from our family members. She was first one that got the cut at the age of ten, and since that was the only way she will be considered a woman in my own community, and that’s why I do this work today because of the sacrifice she made for me then"

"Was when I was eight years old, my sister and I ran away at four a.m. and hid in a tree to escape from the cut. The next day I went to him, my grandfather was the first person who I could convince that the cut was not necessary, and was the first person who listened to me. He changed my life, and that’s why today I am the woman of my dreams. Thank you"

"“This is about the countless girls, women, boys, men, and elders all over Kenya and Africa who dare today are working to bring female genital mutilation and child marriage to an end,”"

"Being humble is away to receive blessings and feel good"

"Discipline to me is usually being in the court before the coach"

""If we believe in ourselves, if we put God first, I know everything is possible"."

""Winning doesn't mean you played well, you might have won because of the opponent's mistake"."

"The public support I get is what keeps me going"

"I had just entered my car then rolled down the window. That was at Langata mall, outside a supermarket called Cleanshelf at 8pm. Some well built, tall and dark man just approached me. I had seen him standing near my car but he was not a suspicious person. He then mumbled something like Wacha kelele, ama tutakumaliza (stop making noise otherwise we will kill you). He hit me on my left eye and walked away. He was not in a hurry to run or hide"

"you don’t wake up and say, I’m going to be an activist, that is the career that I want. It doesn’t work like that really. You find yourself in these spaces because you’re angered by something or you want to change something"

"not being able to sleep well and sometimes, not sleeping at all! When I get any of these episodes online, I am hardly able to sleep. I spend my nights worrying and dreading getting back online when morning comes"

"I kept asking myself if there was anything I could have done. Perhaps if I had stepped in, he would still be alive"

"extremely personally lewd, body shaming me and my family"

"“Theft doesn’t even stop during a pandemic,”...“We have people dying while some are stealing.”"

"“We are tried of being bombarded every single day with news of how much money we are losing that should be going to fight the COVID pandemic,”"

"I am in good shape and I hope to run well tomorrow. The race will be very tough with Lornah and Anikó. It will not be easy but I will do my best. It depends on who will be pushing the pace and also on the wind conditions."

"I sacrifice much time to make sure I balance each and every activity. I live a normal life outside the ring, just like any other person. Like a police officer while on duty and off duty."

"Scientific training helps me improve on my physical ability, fitness components, flexibility, reaction time, strength, power, speed, balance and agility."

"I have no worries at all. I train based on scientific principles. My taekwondo coach is a professional in the sports field which is an added advantage to me. During training I am taught about conditioning, anatomy, and injuries and their management, so I understand the human body and hence am very cautious while training by doing the right exercise."