Paukwa? Pakawa!
Paukwa is a place dedicated to positive stories about Kenya. Our story house is named for the Swahili word that is an invitation to a story – Paukwa. It’s an age- old term, well known across East Africa. Paukwa invites one to remember the joy of stories from their childhood days and to get lost in new, familiar or unknown ideas about the daily things that surround us.
Each day ordinary Kenyans are pushing our nation forward. As volunteers, as SME owners, as creatives, teachers, farmers, counsellors, techwizards and more. There is a bigger story as they build our nation each day through their tenacity, hard work, positive attitude, search for excellence, and sheer hustle.
Through their efforts we all grow.
At Paukwa, we shine a spotlight on the everyday builders of our nation and the history we almost forgot.
This digital storybank celebrates memory, culture, modernity, but most of all, the positive. Dive in and discover a story of Kenya you didn’t know you never knew!
#MisemoYetu
Communication is a key part of our daily lives. Though when you think about how communication happens in Kenya, some phrases can only best be understood by us alone. These phrases consist of the way we begin conversations, the way we respond to queries, the way we summarize situations, and even the way we explain otherwise complex scenarios. If this says anything about Kenyans, it’s that we are unique
Paukwa? Pakawa!
Paukwa is a place dedicated to positive stories about Kenya. Our story house is named for the Swahili word that is an invitation to a story – Paukwa. It’s an age- old term, well known across East Africa. Paukwa invites one to remember the joy of stories from their childhood days and to get lost in new, familiar or unknown ideas about the daily things that surround us.
Each day ordinary Kenyans are pushing our nation forward. As volunteers, as SME owners, as creatives, teachers, farmers, counsellors, techwizards and more. There is a bigger story as they build our nation each day through their tenacity, hard work, positive attitude, search for excellence, and sheer hustle.
Through their efforts we all grow.
At Paukwa, we shine a spotlight on the everyday builders of our nation and the history we almost forgot.
This digital storybank celebrates memory, culture, modernity, but most of all, the positive. Dive in and discover a story of Kenya you didn’t know you never knew!
#KeSafari
One thing we know is that as Kenyans our knowledge of our country is sometimes wanting. With 580,367 square kilometres to cover it’s a big country! Few people have had the opportunity to travel across the forty seven counties that make up Kenya and so sometimes our knowledge of places and people could still be defined by a few things we learnt at school or by major landmarks,
Remember the story of...
Patrick Jawabu: One Man’s Mission to Protect and Empower Children with Disabilities
The year was 1985 and Patrick Jawabu – then a cattle minder and contract labourer - had visited his friend in his home in Uasin Gishu. The visit was going well until Patrick stood on a raised hill at his friend’s place and spied something concerning in the neighbour’s plot. What he saw changed the course of his life forever. The compound had a home and a makeshift umbrella...
Our audio stories
A note from our team
RETHINKING TOURISM
Wanderlust is reigniting within us the quenchless desire to travel, explore, and revel in the glorious outdoors. As we welcome the change in seasons and the appetite for adventure, we are invited to pause and think about the impact of our travels on Mother Nature. Across our website you will find stories that highlight one-of-a-kind locations in Kenya like #KePlaces, #VisiwaVyetu and #KeHeritageSites. Places that are vibrant not just for their beautiful natural scenery but also for the spellbinding stories of the people, cultures, and landscapes. We hope this inspires you to enjoy sustainable tourism on your next trip. After all, each of us plays a crucial role in the preservation of these places for posterity.
TEAM PAUKWA
A note from our team
ON GRATITUDE
Allow us to take a moment of reflection. We are grateful for the journey of time, for the learnings we have experienced about our country as we have spent time in archives, in interviews, on bumpy roads crisscrossing the nation, in online rabbit holes in our quest to build stories of Kenya. We are incredibly grateful for the community of readers we have and all the feedback, thumbs up, questions and exclamations that you have shared. We have enjoyed spending time in new spaces bringing our story collections alive in forums, on panels, in festivals and in virtual settings. Through each of these endeavours we are continually sharpened by others, we have found our tribe of individuals and collectives as curious as we are about our history, and we are comforted and emboldened by the reminders that we are not alone on our quest and indeed – this work of narrative shaping, of history building, of spotlight shining is important. With reflection comes gratitude, introspection, and hope and so we thank you for being part of our Paukwa journey.
TEAM PAUKWA
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