Culture

Main article: Culture of Kenya Dressed up Maasai warriors

Kenya is a diverse country and, although tribalism is a major problem in Kenya, tribal stereotypes and regional accents are a great source of amusement all over the country. Addressing someone by their tribe is not offensive.

Notable peoples include the Swahili on the coast, pastoralist communities in the north, and several different communities in the central and western regions. The Maasai culture is well known because of tourism, despite being a minor percentage of the Kenyan population. They are renowned for their elaborate upper body adornment and jewellery.

Kenya has an extensive music, television and theatre scene.

Media

The Kenyan media are robust in nature with capability to deliver breaking news from across Kenya and the globe and avail information on the latest top stories, business, sports and entertainment. Popular Kenyan newspapers include:

The Standard The Daily Nation The Star The People East Africa Weekly

Television networks operational include:

Kenya Broadcasting Co-operation (KBC) Citizen TV Kenya Television Network (KTN) National Television, (NTV) Kiss television K24 Television Q-TV Kass-TV

All these terrestrial channels being transmitted in DVB T2 digital TV signal.

Literature Main article: Literature of Kenya

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is one of the best known writers of Kenya. His book, Weep Not, Child, is an illustration of life in Kenya during the British occupation. This is a story about the effects of the Mau Mau on the lives of Kenyans. Its combination of themes—colonialism, education, and love—helped to make it one of the best-known novels in Africa.

M.G. Vassanji's 2003 novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall won the Giller Prize in 2003. It is the fictional memoir of a Kenyan of Indian heritage and his family as they adjust to the changing political climates in colonial and post-colonial Kenya.

Additionally, since 2003, the literary journal Kwani? has been publishing Kenyan contemporary literature.

Music Main article: Music of Kenya Popular Kenyan musician Jua Cali.

Kenya has a diverse assortment of popular music forms, in addition to multiple types of folk music based on the variety over 40 regional languages.

The guitar is the most dominant instrument in Kenyan popular music. Guitar rhythms are very complex and include both native beats and imported ones, especially the Congolese cavacha rhythm. Music usually involves the interplay of multiple parts, and more recently, showy guitar solos as well.

Lyrics are most often in Swahili or English. There's also some emerging aspect of Lingala borrowed from Congolese musicians. Lyrics are also written in the indigenous languages, though urban radio will generally not play music in one of the "tribal" languages. This however has been seen through the emergence of vernacular radio stations that broadcast in native languages.

Benga music has been popular since the late 1960s, especially in the area around Lake Victoria. The word benga is occasionally used to refer to any kind of pop music. Bass, guitar and percussion are the usual instruments.

Sports Main article: Sport in Kenya Kenyan 20, 25 and 30 kilometres world record holder Tegla Loroupe in 2007, at a meet in Schortens, Germany

Kenya is active in several sports, among them cricket, rallying, football (soccer), rugby union and boxing. But the country is known chiefly for its dominance in Middle-distance and long-distance athletics. Kenya has consistently produced Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions in various distance events, especially in 800 m, 1,500 m, 3,000 m steeplechase, 5,000 m, 10,000 m and the marathon. Kenyan athletes (particularly Kalenjin) continue to dominate the world of distance running, although competition from Morocco and Ethiopia has reduced this supremacy. Kenya's best-known athletes included the four-time women's Boston Marathon winner and two-time world champion Catherine Ndereba, former Marathon world record-holder Paul Tergat, and John Ngugi.

Kenya won several medals during the Beijing Olympics, six gold, four silver and four bronze, making it Africa's most successful nation in the 2008 Olympics. New athletes gained attention, such as Pamela Jelimo, the women's 800m gold medalist who went ahead to win the IAAF Golden League jackpot, and Samuel Wanjiru who won the men's marathon. Retired Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion Kipchoge Keino helped usher in Kenya's ongoing distance dynasty in the 1970s and was followed by Commonwealth Champion Henry Rono's spectacular string of world record performances. Lately, there has been controversy in Kenyan athletics circles, with the defection of a number of Kenyan athletes to represent other countries, chiefly Bahrain and Qatar. The Kenyan Ministry of Sports has tried to stop the defections, but they have continued anyway, with Bernard Lagat the latest, choosing to represent the United States. Most of these defections occur because of economic or financial factors. Some elite Kenyan runners who cannot qualify for their country's strong national team find it easier to qualify by running for other countries.

Kenyan Olympic and world record holder in the 800 meters, David Rudisha

Kenya has been a dominant force in women's volleyball within Africa, with both the clubs and the national team winning various continental championships in the past decade. The women's team has competed at the Olympics and World Championships but without any notable success. Cricket is another popular and the most successful team sport. Kenya has competed in the Cricket World Cup since 1996. They upset some of the World's best teams and reached semi-finals of the 2003 tournament. They won the inaugural World Cricket League Division 1 hosted in Nairobi and participated in the World T20. Their current captain is Collins Obuya. They participated in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Kenya is represented by Lucas Onyango as a professional rugby league player who plays with Oldham Roughyeds. Besides the former European Super League team, he has played for Widnes Vikings and rugby union with Sale Sharks. Rugby union is increasing in popularity, especially with the annual Safari Sevens tournament. Kenya sevens team ranked 9th in IRB Sevens World Series for the 2006 season. Kenya was also a regional powerhouse in soccer. However, its dominance has been eroded by wrangles within the Kenya Football Federation. This has led to a suspension by FIFA which was lifted in March 2007.

In the motor rallying arena, Kenya is home to the world famous Safari Rally, commonly acknowledged as one of the toughest rallies in the world. It was a part of the World Rally Championship for many years until its exclusion after the 2002 event owing to financial difficulties. Some of the best rally drivers in the world have taken part in and won the rally, such as Björn Waldegård, Hannu Mikkola, Tommi Mäkinen, Shekhar Mehta, Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. Although the rally still runs annually as part of the Africa rally championship, the organisers are hoping to be allowed to rejoin the World Rally championship in the next couple of years.

Cuisine

Kenyans generally have three meals in a day – breakfast in the morning (kiamsha kinywa), lunch after noon (chakula cha mchana) and supper in the evening (chakula cha jioni). In between they will have the 10 o'clock tea (chai ya saa nne) and 4 pm tea (chai ya saa kumi). Breakfast is usually tea or porridge with bread, chapati, mahamri, boiled potatoes or yams. Ugali with vegetables, sour milk, meat, fish or any other stew is generally eaten by most of the population for lunch or supper. Regional variations exist though and each region has their own preferred food.

In western Kenya, among the Luhya, Luo and Kalenjin, lye is a common ingredient in most traditional foods and mursik – a traditional milk drink. It is not yet known whether lye is responsible for the high prevalence of throat cancer in these region.

In cities such as Nairobi, there are fast food restaurants which include Steers and KFC and soon will include others like Subway.