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Our Attention Is Finite

Our attention is finite, yet we spend it everywhere but where it matters. This is not a moral failure. It is a structural one. Attention economics is the idea that in a world overflowing with information, human attention becomes the scarce resource. Whoever captures it, holds power. Over time, this has reshaped not just markets, but inner lives. What we notice. What we ignore. What we can tolerate. What we can no longer sit with. For a long time, people warned that television would rot our brains. In hindsight, television looks almost generous. A show required you to stay for forty minutes. A film asked for two hours. A detective story invited you to notice details, to remember names, to hold multiple threads in your mind at once. You watched. You followed. You waited. Listening to music meant staying long enough to learn lyrics. Reading meant sitting with confusion until meaning arrived. Writing a poem meant wrestling with language, not skimming it. Even boredom had a purpose—it ...
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12 Rarely Told Lessons from Sitting in on Interviews in Kenya

I am not a HR professional, but sitting in on interviews recently opened my eyes to truths about the Kenyan job market that nobody prepares you for. From experienced candidates struggling to negotiate, to graduates with shiny degrees being ignored, the gap between what we think matters and what actually matters is sobering. Here are 12 rarely spoken lessons I wish every job seeker in Kenya would internalize. 1. Years of Experience Don’t Equal Bargaining Power I watched candidates with over 10 years of work experience accept salaries barely higher than entry-level. In Kenya, longevity in a role does not guarantee leverage. Employers will pay only what the market allows, not what your CV claims. If your skills aren’t directly tied to revenue, cost-saving, or a rare technical expertise, years alone won’t buy you influence. 2. Not All Abroad Experience is Equal We assume that working abroad gives you prestige back home. But I saw returnees from the Middle East who had spent years th...
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The Worth of Experience in Kenya Today

In Kenya , we were taught to believe that experience is gold. That if you worked long enough, if you collected enough years, your value would automatically rise. That the job market would respect you for the battles you have fought, the places you have served, the mistakes you have endured. But last week, I sat in interviews that shook that belief to its core. Men and women with 5, 8, even 10 years of experience walked in, clutching their resumes with pride, only to accept salaries that would barely pay their children’s school fees . People who had returned from abroad, with exposure and networks, nodding quietly as they were offered wages not too far from what a fresh graduate could expect. It wasn’t just one or two candidates. It was a pattern. Experience Is Not Currency Here We love to tell young people, “get experience first, then the money will come.” But what happens when the money doesn’t come? What happens when you realize that in the Kenyan market — especially in certain...
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The Real Problem: Why Are Kenyans Accepting Bad Wages and Conditions?

Every day, Kenyans accept painfully low wages for their skills, experience, and time. Whether it's a translator taking KES 30,000 when the market rate is KES 60,000, a waiter working six days a week for KES 12,000, or a factory worker grinding for KES 100 per Saturday shift—these scenarios are far too common. The consequences of this widespread problem are serious: it depresses wages for everyone, normalizes exploitation, and keeps the majority of Kenyans in a cycle of financial struggle. But why do people accept these conditions? The reasons are complex and deeply ingrained in our society. Some of the biggest factors include: Desperation and Survival Mode – Bills have to be paid, children need food, and in a country with a high unemployment rate, any income feels better than no income. Lack of Salary Transparency – Employers take advantage of the fact that salaries are gatekept, meaning most people don’t even know their market worth. Low Self-Worth and Fear of Speaking Up – Man...
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Daniel Arap Moi — The Shadow and the Shepherd: A Deep Dive into Kenya’s Second President

If Jomo Kenyatta was the founding father, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi was the long-reigning stepfather — sometimes protective, often punitive, and almost always enigmatic. He ruled Kenya for 24 years, the longest of any president to date. To some, he was the gentle teacher, Mwalimu , who kept the nation from tearing apart. To others, he was the architect of a surveillance state, a master of patronage and fear, the man who perfected repression through calm. This is a portrait of Daniel Arap Moi — not just as a ruler, but as a man shaped by modest beginnings, colonial violence, and the hunger for order in a chaotic time. Early Life: The Boy from Sacho Daniel Arap Moi was born on September 2, 1924, in Kurieng’wo, Baringo, in Kenya’s Rift Valley. He came from the Tugen sub-group of the Kalenjin community. His father died when he was just four. Raised by his uncle, Moi’s early life was marked by hardship, discipline, and deep Christian missionary influence. He trained as a teacher at Tambach ...
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Not All Disabilities Are Visible

Some pain does not leave a mark. Some exhaustion does not show in the face. Some people are carrying weights that have no name, no diagnosis, and no outward sign. We are used to recognizing suffering only when it can be pointed to — a bandage, a crutch, a cast, a wound. Something we can see. But the human interior is its own world, and often, the heaviest struggles live there. The Quiet Work of Holding Yourself Together There are those who walk into a room smiling, contributing, present — and yet they are holding themselves together one breath at a time. Not because they are pretending, but because they have learned to live with what would overwhelm another person. Some battles are fought inside the mind: The slow grey of depression The relentless hum of anxiety The sudden, unbidden memory that takes the body back to a place it never wants to return The deep fatigue that sleep does not cure And yet, life continues. The world moves. The dishes still need to be wa...
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Know Thyself: The Quiet Power of Naming Your Nature

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” — Carl Jung We live in a culture that equates good intentions with goodness, and ambition with ability. But very few people in Kenya—or anywhere—truly know what they are made of. We can name our qualifications and our dreams. But ask someone their vices or virtues, and they hesitate. Worse, they lie. The Danger of Self-Unawareness In Kenya today, many of us are wandering through life making choices—big, small, and irreversible—without truly understanding who we are. We end up in jobs we despise, relationships we shouldn’t be in, or positions of influence we aren’t emotionally or ethically equipped for. And at the root of this dysfunction is a simple truth: we don’t know ourselves. This is not a spiritual or abstract dilemma. It’s a deeply practical one. To know oneself is to understand your vices, your virtues, your weaknesses, and your strengths—not in a vague sense, but in detail. Let’s ge...
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