Even though we've written epic poems and made incredible films about love, I still don't think anyone can understand what it is, or why it means everything.

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.

One day, I was running to the river. Along the way there was the most exquisite butterfly, a tiny little thing, on the pavement. I kind of jumped over it. And then two days later I woke up in the middle of the night with a character running, jumping over butterflies on the streets of Nairobi. After that, I followed the story. The story wrote itself.

Every Kenyan writer has offered me something to hold onto, something to believe in.

I think every morning we wake up offers a new beginning, a new way of stepping into the day. I think every conversation could be a new chance.

Dying away from home, away from the soil of your birth - and to do so unseen and unmourned - is a profound horror.

Even though we've written epic poems and made incredible films about love, I still don't think anyone can understand what it is, or why it means everything.