KenyaOnAShoeString: Real Advice for Real Kenyans

There’s a kind of grief we rarely speak about in Kenya—the grief that comes not from loss, but from survival. Many Kenyans know what it’s like to give up entire decades of their lives for the sake of family. We raise children who aren’t ours. We care for ageing, ailing parents when healthcare fails. We build homes from scratch while still repaying loans. We battle court cases over family land, support siblings through school, and somehow still show up to work, church, harambees, and funerals with a smile. We are excellent at pushing through pain. We endure. We provide. We hold everything together. And so we often tell ourselves: “I’ll rest when I’m done.” But what if done never comes? Even after the chaos ends—the illness, the debt, the heartbreak—we don’t rest. We move the goalpost. We chase another opportunity. We dream of new lands and new starts. We keep running, because stillness feels foreign. We are a nation that knows how to hustle, how to survive—but we don’t know how t...

Saturday is not just a day; it’s an institution, a sacred ritual, a non-negotiable asset in the life of every Kenyan. It’s the one day you get to reclaim your time, your peace, your sanity, and most importantly, your future. Yet, some of you are out here trading it away like sugarcane in a traffic jam. Let’s break it down, activity by activity, and show you why sacrificing this day is a robbery—committed by either your employer or by your own bad decisions. 1. Weddings: Where Futures Are Built (Or Broken) Saturday is for weddings, and in Kenya, a wedding is not just a wedding—it’s a financial networking seminar in disguise. You’re not just eating pilau and pretending to like the bride’s gown; you’re rubbing shoulders with people who might hire you, invest in your side hustle, or introduce you to a golden opportunity. Moral of the story: That salary your employer gives you? A single handshake at a wedding could bring you a contract that triples it. But you’re here working on a Saturday...

Work. Kazi. The thing we all claim to do but somehow spend most of the day avoiding. If you walk into any Kenyan office, small business, or even a big corporation, you’ll notice something interesting—most people are present, but how many are actually working? Let’s take a brutally honest look at how work currently happens in Kenya and what it should actually look like. 1. The Employee Perspective: When ‘Work’ Means Social Media Breaks The typical Kenyan employee clocks in at 8:00 AM, but let’s be honest, they actually start working at 10:00 AM. Why? Because the first two hours are dedicated to checking WhatsApp statuses, scrolling through TikTok, and catching up on celebrity gossip. If you’re at the reception of a solar company, you should be learning about solar trends, improving your Excel skills, or understanding customer service best practices—not watching a cooking tutorial when your job has nothing to do with food! What Work Should Look Like: Use slow hours to upskill—learn a n...

If you’ve ever been invited to a ‘business opportunity’ meeting at Java by an overly enthusiastic friend promising financial freedom, congratulations! You’ve had a brush with Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), the modern-day version of being sold a dream wrapped in ‘hard work’ and Bible verses. The book Just Wait Till We Are Diamond details the harrowing journey of a child being groomed into MLM life, sacrificing normalcy, relationships, and childhood in pursuit of a rank that’s just one more motivational meeting away. Sounds familiar? It should. Because as Kenyans, we’ve been fed similar illusions of success , not just by MLMs, but by society, motivational speakers, and even our own culture of blind hustle. Let’s unpack this and find real, Kenyan solutions that work. Lesson 1: “Your Success Is in Your Hands” (But Is It, Though?) One of the biggest MLM tactics is making you believe that success is 100% within your control . If you fail, it’s because you didn’t work hard enough —not because ...