KILL ME QUICK POWER POINT

PRESENTATION
BY DR.
VIOLET BARASA
• BRIEF BACKGROUND ABOUT THE BOOK
• Kill Me Quick is set in Kenya.
• They are primarily concerned with man's struggle for
socioeconomic survival.
• It is all about oppressed of man, his bestial level of living, and
his futile efforts to make a standard living.
• The novels present through vivid visual images and settings
the absurdity of the human condition in modern Kenya.
• Meja Mwangi was born in Nanyuki, Kenya, in 1948.

• He worked for French television in Nairobi and for the

British Council. ...His first novel, Kill Me Quick, was
published in 1973 and won the Jomo Kenyatta Prize.
• PLOT SUMMARY
• Meja and Maina having completed their secondary education
successfully, move from their rural homes to Nairobi City
with the hope of getting good jobs.
• Their parents who have also tried hard to support their
education, are hopeful that their sons will find jobs in the city
and start supporting them.
• They move from office to office looking for a job but they
cannot find any.
• CONT…..

• The education they have seems to have not equipped them

with necessary skills to survive in the main street of Nairobi.
• Fear of being seen as failures force them to join backstreet
and start eating from the dumpster.
• They cannot afford to go back home empty -handed having in
mind all the expectations their families have for them.
• CONT…..
• Meja and Maina start volunteering in people’s homes to do
whatever they can.
• Their main aim is to find food. Some people are suspicious
of their intentions
• while others allow them to work, giving them food and at
times they even get money.
• Some allow them to work but do not give them anything.
• CONT….
They also begin to start filling potholes
which at times they offload at night and start
filling again just to get money from well-
wishers.
Their secret is revealed and they run away
from that place.
They then start to sell bottles but that does
not help them much.
• CONT…..
• One day a man called Boi approaches them and
promises to help them find a job in Nanyuki.
Δ They go with the man hoping their lives will
change ,only to find out that things are not as good as
they expected.
• The two friends start working in a farm where they get
mistreated by the foreman and Boi himself .
• CONT…
Boi seeks attention from the two friends,
lecturing them and doing all sorts of things that
they are not happy about.
This creates an enmity between them.
They start to plan plots against each other as a
revenge.
This leads to Meja and Maina being chased from
the farm.
They go back to the backstreet.
• CONT…
• While at the dumpster, a plastic bag is thrown off the
dumpster. Maina picks it and a chase starts.
• Maina passes the bag to Meja who runs for a long time despite
the police and the mob following closely.
• He only stops after being knocked by a car.
• To his surprise, what has caused that hurt is just a bag with
two rotten mangoes inside.
• CONT….
Maina starts to look for Meja everywhere but fails to locate
him.
A man called Razor, who is the head of a gang consisting of
Jicho,Nyoka,Professor Hakuna Kazi, Kifagio, Jitu and Sara
approaches Maina and convinces him to join his gang.
He joins and after being oriented, he becomes and expert and
steals many things.
 Sara who is Razor’s girlfriend loves him for this and starts to
have a secret love affair with him.
The gang entirely depends on Maina for survival.
• CONT…..

• Shanty Town is on fire, forcing the gang to run away.

• They are then led by Sara to a different place where they can call their new
home.
• Maina finds wiser ways of stealing and continue to support the gang.
• He collects money from residents of Cedar Avenue, steals milk from a
milkman and supplies to the residents of Cedar Avenue.
• He gets caught while doing this and is taken to prison.
• A place he find to be better than the backstreets since they are given three
meals a day.
• CONT….

• Meanwhile, Meja goes home after the accident ,meets her sister who reminds
her of the promises he made while going to the city.
• The promises he is not able to fulfil.
• He fakes fainting and escapes as the sister goes to call the mother.
• He drops the only coin he had in his pocket.
• He asks for a lift to Nairobi but he is left at the mines, where by the support of
Ngigi, he is allowed to work at the mines.
• He lives this place when there are no more stones and move with Ngigi to the
city to start stealing.
• He is caught and taken to prison where he meets Maina, as Ngigi escapes.
• CONT…..

• The people in rural areas including Meja and Maina’s parents are
really finding it hard to survive.
• The farmers are not paid for their crops that they sell to
cooperatives.
• Maina attempts suicide after learning that her former
girlfriend,Delilah,is getting married and gets a good lecture from
Meja.
• He becomes upset and decides to go home without telling anyone.
• He reaches his village but fails to locate his home.
• CONT….

He then finds out that his house was auctioned when
his father was not able to pay the loan he borrowed to
take him to school.
He kills the man and he gets shot too by the police the
following day.
Meja is back to prison without any genuine reason.
He tells the inmates about Maina’s death.
He later tells the policemen that he volunteered to
come back to prison since life is not easy outside.
• CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATION
• MAINA
• • He is the protagonist in the novel.
• • He is determined – he lives home to go to Nairobi to look for a job.
• • He is hardworking – at school he excels in his studies and passes his
examination.
• • While in the city he moved from office to office looking for the job.
• • He is friendly – he becomes a friend to Meja on there fast meeting, gives him
• something to eat and proceeds to accompany him to look for a job.
• • He also meets Razor in town and, talks to him, accepts and accepts to join his
gang.
• MEJA
• He is Maina's friend.
• He is determined – He tried all means to make sure he is employed in the mines;
• where the work was difficult and demanding.
• He was also determined to walk to town to look for a job.
• He is persevering – He lived hard live on the street, he walked from place to place
looking for a job, he worked hard on the farm despite being liked by Boi.
• He is hardworking – He went to through school and acquired good grades.
• He is friendly - he was Maina’s good friend who supported him in every way.
• The gang
• Welcoming - they all come from different places but joined each
other to form one gang with one mind, they also invited Maina to join
them.
• Preserving – they lived a very poor live in a poor shade made of
plastics and polythene.
• Understanding – They understood that Maina was new on the job
and they were to teach him the tactics for survival and they went
ahead to a company him on his very fast trial.
 Themes
•POVERTY
•The gangs lived in a plastic and polythene made house.
•Maina’s family has got a small shamba, they also a big debt in the
bank which they borrowed in order for Maina to go through school.
•In town all the people in the back street are so poor, they have to
lead a very poor life, feed on very poor meals from the streets.
•While leaving home to town Maina had to put on his father’s suit
and shoes because he had nothing of his own.
• EDUCATION
• Meja and Maina have gone to school and acquired education
which is of no importance.
• They have come to realize that education is not just scoring
high grades but acquiring relevant skills that can people to
survive in the society.
• Professor has learned and acquired a degree and eventually
landed on the street in Nairobi.
• Maja’s young sister has started school.
• LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

•
•There was a love relationship between Sarah
and Razor.
•• Delila and Maina.
•• Delila and Maina.
• TRAGEDY
• • People and animals died during the drought because of
hunger.
• • When the Suburb and Shanty town burned down, people lost
their lives and properties.
• • Kifagio killed Jitu by disciplining him.
• • Razor and his friends died in prison.
• • Maina was shot and he died.

BETRAYAL
•

• Sarah betrayed Razor by engaging in sexual

affair with Maina.
• Delila betrayed Maina by running a way to
marry another person.
• Maina betrayed Meja by trying to commit
suicide.
• Styles
• Maina narrates on how he meets and lived with Meja on the
back street.
• Meja tells a story of why he is in prison.
• Dialogue.
• While in prison Meja and Maina talks to the fellow prisoners –
gang.
When Meja and Maina meets for the first time, they converse
and Maina is ready to help Meja settle in the
backstreet.
 CONT…….

As Meja and Maina goes a round looking for jobs they
talk to different authorities.
When Maina goes back to his home village, he tries to
talk to the people he meets to help him tress his
home.
When Meja goes home he talks to her sister who
demands the gifts he had promised him.
• CONCLUSION
• Kill Me Quick is a text that reflects real issues that
affect Kenyans.
• Some of these issues include unemployment ,
prostitutions, crime among others.
• These and other issues are evident in this text.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND