KenyaOnAShoeString: Real Advice for Real Kenyans

“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...

“Poverty is not a vice. But what you do with it might be.” — Unknown There’s a dangerous, quietly accepted narrative that’s taken root in many parts of Kenya: if you’re poor, you’re exempt from responsibility. That being poor gives you moral immunity. That the system is so broken, so rigged, that all standards of decency and dignity are no longer required of you. We see it in small things and large things. The loudness in matatus that bleeds into chaos. The trash thrown carelessly into rivers or roadsides. The apartment blocks painted once—and never again. The total absence of civic responsibility in many public spaces. But here’s the hard truth: poverty is not a license to live poorly. Where We Confuse Things There’s a difference between being wealthy , rich , and living well . Being wealthy is about generational access, systems, security. Being rich is about accumulation—money, assets, disposable income. Living well is about intentionality. Cleanliness, order, kindn...