Kenyan Proverbs (101-122)

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Things are miraculous: reeds produce water,
forests produce firewood and fire produce ashes.

To be praised is to be lost.

Tongue is lightening.

Use of brains begets wealth.

Water can not be forced uphill.

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We should talk while we are still alive.

We will water the thorn for the sake of the rose.

We add wisdom to knowledge.

We should put out fire while it is still small.

We can't depend on one brave man.

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What the people think cannot be denied.

What is in the stomach carries what is in the head.

When the date crop is over, everyone mocks at the palm tree.

When a person hides sickness, we will hear cries of distress.

When the mouse laughs at the car, there is a hole nearby.

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Who has shoes does not fear thorns.

Who walks in the mud, at some point must clean his feet.

You do not run into mountains, but people yes.

You cannot handle fire with your hands.

You must treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents.
It is loaned to you by your children.

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You only make a bridge where there is a river.

Your friend’s mother is your mother too.

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Kenyan Proverbs (001-050)

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A good name is better than a nice scent.

A stomach is not carried by a fool.

A stick is straightened while still young.

A woman’s stomach does not grow if she is not pregnant.

A well developed bush cannot lack
or miss a useful tree to be felled.

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A tractor driver doesn't fear dust.

A thieving dog knows itself.

A bug grows up in dry wood, comes to full maturity.

A fool has many days.

A messenger cannot be beaten.

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A fool is like a wanderer lost on a path.

A mother is the cornerstone of the family.

A faithful woman is a crown to her husband.

A funeral offers the opportunity for reconciliation.

A Champion bull starts from birth.

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A dog that steals sells its body.

A log in the river will never be a crocodile.

A deaf ear is followed by death and an ear that
listens is followed by blessings.

A person who never travels, believes his mother's
cooking is the best in the world.

A hyena cannot smell its own stench.

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A small house will hold a hundred friends.

A rich person does not have to struggle, that is,
share the problems of ordinary people.

A village united in fraternity is prosperous.

All monkeys can not hung on the same branch.

An eye that you treat is the one that turns against you.

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An orphaned calf licks its own back.

Any goat can serve as bridewealth unless it has a defect.

Bad dancing does not brake an engagement.

Beer that will spoil ferments unequally.

Big talkers won't be your in-laws long.

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Blind belief is dangerous.

Bow-legged person does not hunt antelopes.

By persevering the egg walks on legs.

Competition exhausted the lungs.

Do not follow a person who is running a way.

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Do not boast about yourself before
performing an event, but after the event.

Do not fill your basket with useless shells of coconuts.

Don't interrupt a woman fetching water.

Drums are never beat without reason.

Even a friend can not rescue one from old age.

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Even an expert swimmer drowns.

Every frog has its poison.

God does not sleep.

God cultivates with a blunt machete.

Happiness is like a field you can harvest every season.

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He who has a sister has a brother-in-law.

He who refuses to obey cannot command.

He who does not leave with a stone says
the stone is warm.

He who treats you as himself does you no injustice.

Home is for a husband and a wife.

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Kenyan Proverbs (051-100)

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How easy it is to defeat people who
do not kindle fire for themselves.

If a girl sits badly, it is up to her mother to cover her thighs.

If the rhythm of the drum beat changes,
the dance step must adapt.

If you refuse directions from an elder,
you will walk until sunset.

If you have no teeth, do not break the clay cooking pot.

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If you educate a woman, you have educated a population.

If you don't eat, you can't give blessing.

If you provoke a rattlesnake,
you must be prepared to be bitten by it .

Ingratitude is sooner or later fatal to its author.

It is not possible to avoid a slippery home compound.

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It is obvious when you receive a visitor
and you cook for him or her you will eat too.

Leave bad things, talk peace.

Let dogs sleep, otherwise if anything
done against them is a problem.

Members of the same family are open
to each other and can discuss anything.

Misery loves company.

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No matter how early one awakes,
the sun does not rise first.

No child should be babied while another
is offered to the hyena to bite.

No person is an island.

One who relates with a corrupt person
likewise gets corrupted.

One in the woodpile does not laugh
at the one in the fire.

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One person is thin porridge;
two people are soup;
three people are a lump.

Only a medicine man gets rich by sleeping.

Only someone else can scratch your back.

Regular work tires a woman but totally wrecks a man.

Rumours generate misunderstandings.

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Slowly, slowly, porridge goes into the gourd.

Termites cause death, damage, and great harm to white ants.

The possessor may become dispossessed.

The venomous snake cannot be seen in the Savannah.

The hyena with a cub does not eat
all the available food.

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The one who milks the cow is not the same person
as the one who removes ticks from a cow.

The chaser and the one who is chased get tired.

The eye is a coward.

The one with many uncles slept hungry.

The fire burns the fire maker.

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The devil turns against its friend.

The bush in which you hide has eyes.

The blame of the antelope is on the hunter.

The greedy one swells the stomach.

The eyes of the in-law belittle what they have seen.

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The broken plate cannot be rejoined.

The thorn in your foot is temporarily appeased, but it is still in.

The fool hid what would eat him.

The bull doesn’t bellow when it sleeps.

The lame knows how to fall.

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The man may be the head of the home;
the wife is the heart.

The teeth of a man serve as a fence.

The river swells with the contribution of the small streams.

There is no hyena without a friend.

There is no better mirror than a best friend.

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Sons are father to the man. — Kenyan proverb

More English Proverbs

To see more Illustrated Proverbs click here.

[6043]

Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. ~ Kenyan Proverb [18395]

Photo by Vinod Panicker
[CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)],
via Wikimedia Commons

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You may laugh at a friend's roof; don't laugh at his sleeping accommodation. ~ Kenyan Proverb [18379]

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Nobody gathers firewood to roast a thin goat. ~ Kenyan Proverb [17935]

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Hurrying has no blessing. ~Kenyan Proverb [17015]

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He who is unable to dance says the yard is stony. ~ Kenyan Proverb [16913]

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He who does not know one thing knows another. ~ Kenyan Proverb [16775]

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Having a good discussion is like having riches. ~ Kenyan Proverb [16759]

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Every rope has two ends. ~ Kenyan Proverb [16459]

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Alternate version:

Every stick has two ends. ~ English Proverb [16444]

All cassavas get the same skin but not all cassavas tastes the same. ~ Kenyan Proverb [15647]

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A donkey always says thank you with a kick. ~ Kenyan Proverb [15327]

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A person changing his clothing always hides while changing. ~ Kenyan Proverb [15323]

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