The Inbetweeners

Recently, I came across a potential solution to redress the financial hurdles that limit access to tertiary education. This solution is called an "Income Sharing Agreement" ( hereinafter ISA). According to Batya Bankers , ISAs are like equity investments.  An individual ... allows investors to buy ‘shares’ in their future earnings while contributing to social value through sustainable empowerment. Students receive interest-free funds to cover their tuition fees on condition that they agree to pay the lender a specified fraction of their future earnings. By grouping these investments in individuals, lenders are able to offset risks as returns from higher earners hedge the potential losses from lower earners.    Based on this definition, ISAs seem perfectly positioned to connect individuals in need of vast resources, with individuals controlling those resources. They provide vulnerable people without the means to earn or secure collateral - what you give a bank in exchan...

The 2022 Elections are over, and Kenya has its new President and Deputy President; William Samoei Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua, respectively. And I have mixed  feelings about this development. Many of these feelings are animated by what Ruto's Presidency means within the grand scheme of Kenyan politics.  A Ruto-Gachagua Presidency reaffirms the notion that to ascend to the Presidency you must be Kikuyu or Kalenjin. Given that Kenya is a multiracial, multiethnic nation with 42 recognised tribes, this is a destructive and exclusionary notion that does not redress the sins of the past. These sins are; (1) the divide and rule politics and; (2) the establishment of a strong centralised state. Addressing the former, in the colonial era, the British chose to manage this diversity through ‘divide-and-rule;’ a governing strategy in which control is maintained by encouraging conflict between groups, thereby preventing them from uniting in opposition. As part of divide and rule, the British...