Public Kenya Communication and Conversation Etiquette

Traditional Kenya Communication Manners differ from those of other African people in Africa. Learn more about conversation in a Kenya style at this site.

Communication Style

• Conversations tend to be polite, beginning with ‘How is your work?’ ‘How is your home?’ ‘How is your family?’ and is often injected with good doses of humour and laughter. The communication style is usually non-confrontational and polite.

• Kenyans will rarely be direct when speaking with anyone except the closest of friends. They prefer to hide their true feelings, especially when speaking on financial matters.

• Kenyans prefer to maintain peace than to confront someone about a problem they are having.

Kenya Communication - Personal Space And Touching

• Conversation generally takes place at arms length after shaking hands. However, it is common to see men who know each other well, walking and talking whilst remaining hand in hand. This is accepted and in no way seen as strange or homosexual behaviour (homosexuality is illegal ). It is less common to see men and women/couples hand in hand or displaying any affection in public.

• Touching when speaking is kept to a minimum for business contacts and is usually reserved for close friendships. Good friends, including those of the same sex, will converse with an intimate amount of touching, hugging, stroking – mostly in a nonsexual way but with great affection for the other person.

• Kenya is an extremely open and friendly society, so if you know someone well, touching a shoulder or arm in conversation is common, as is plenty of laughter.

• Many Kenyans, particularly those from the village, grow up in often crowded households and have very few personal possessions – everything is shared – so they don’t necessarily have concern for another person’s belongings or space.

• Kenyans tend to be very affectionate people, and do not value personal space very highly. It is not unusual for very good friends (male or female) to be seen holding hands, hugging, caressing each other affectionately, etc. while they walk or talk together.

Kenya Communication and Eye contact

• In certain areas one might not initially make direct eye contact with an elder or more senior person. However this is becoming out dated. The norm is to converse with direct eye contact.

Kenya Communication - View of the time

• ‘Africa Time’ is very flexible. It is common to be late or for services to fail to run completely. Kenyans generally take this with good faith, accepting delays as just part of life and beyond their control. Westerners often find it hard to adjust and can come across as demanding and impatient in comparison.

• In a work situation, employees will usally arrive on time, often early, having left more than ample time for their journey as they will be factoring in unseen delays with public transport and along the always bad roads. Heavy rain can slow things down to a standstill.

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