1623. Ĩleve ĩthei ĩ kĩlonzo kiingĩ. An empty tin has a lot of noise.

Some attribute this adage to the first Speaker of the Kenya National Assembly, Fred Mbiti Mati, in 1962 during a campaign against a voluble opponent. The Speaker took two tins, one filled with water and one empty. Beating both before the gazing electorate he demonstrated that an empty tin is louder. The Speaker, being of the first generation of Kamba elites, might have borrowed this maxim from literature because there is an older English phrase, ‘Empty vessels make the most noise’, meaning that people with the least talent and knowledge usually speak loudest.

1624. Kwandĩkwa ti kũsyawa. To be employed is not to be born.

This axiom alludes to the new version of paid employment. Between 1895 and 1945, the Kamba enlisted in large numbers as soldiers, porters, clerks, and other servants of the British Empire. Paid employment soon became highly esteemed to the extent that the wise had to remind people that employment was not a substitute for blood relationships.

1625. Malĩ ya Mũsa ndĩminwa nĩ Ali. Ali never exhausts the wealth of Moses.

This proverb emerged during the colonial period as coastal Muslim traders increased in Ũkamba. They often employed Islamized Kamba as business caretakers who engaged in pilferage. But pilferage did not bankrupt their employers, hence the proverb. By implication all relationships are mutually exploitative; and when a web of understanding and cohabitation has formed an organic web, it becomes its own criterion. The players will never ruin one another any more than a hand would ruin a foot.

1626. Mũkui wa tũvanzania nĩwĩsĩ vata wa tw’o. The carrier of sacks knows their value.

In the 1980s synthetic nylon sacks, mbasania, replaced sacks (ngunia) made of sisal fibre. Mbasania are very important since no food moves from one place to another except in these sacks. The moral is that people should respect other people’s decisions even when they sound disagreeable.

1627. Mwaki ndambaa kĩthuma. A builder does not stretch out the bedding skin.

This maxim is deeply figurative and tricky to comprehend. The word mwaki means fire or builder depending on pronunciation, while the word kĩthuma (bedding skin) is euphemistic for stomach, firmness, or resolute and inflexible in principles.