The Inbetweeners

 So I have a dirty little secret; I read Harlequinn Romance novels.  It started when I was 16 and, literally, stumbled upon them in the supermarket. 10 years later, I can hardly say that I stumble upon them anymore. I actively seek them out, looking for a variety of romance novels with different protagonists, inciting incidents (beyond the usual Pregnancy, forced Marriage Contract, Arranged Marriage as part of a Business Merger or classic Revenge), and premises. My favourite, so far, has been After the Billionaire's Wedding Vows by Lucy Monroe where Monroe explores what happens after love, marriage and the baby carriage. But I always wondered why I was drawn to these kinds of novels. Is it because the storytelling is formulaic; hitting the same narrative beats every time? This consistency is why I like, and obsessively rewatch, sitcoms. The formulaic structure of a sitcom allows me to dip in and out of the story while still knowing what's going on overall. Likewise, the formu...

In an attempt to justify, and perhaps excuse, the next 24 hours of non-productivity, I have decided to write a post. Almost in a stream-of-consciousness way. But instead of examining why I feel the need to earn relaxation, today I'm not entirely sure what I want to talk about. I could talk about pride, and how it holds us back. Pride makes us unwilling to ask for help, or admit mistakes. But, I don't want to.  I could talk about how we are the enemies of our own progress.  At some point in the last couple of days, I realised I am not the child I was. As a child, I was fearless. Not because I didn't understand failure, or hurt or pain. But because I decided life was worth living in spite of them. Yet, at some point, I lost this understanding of life and became a coward. At some point, I let someone tell me that life isn't worth the pain. Or perhaps that pain isn't worth life. And the result is present-day me: a woman who will never have it all because she is too ter...

Gosh. I really didn't think I'd be writing about this right now. Mainly because I thought we had more time. More time to live. More years to experience. Many more decades to make mistakes. Turns out, we only have 7 years . 2556.75 days before we cross the point of no return, and the damage we have done to our planet is irreversible. Just over 61,000 hours to accept the responsibility past generations have negligently left on our laps. 7 years. And given the current state of the world, I really wish I could believe we could forestall the inevitable. But I don't. We could barely get on the same page about a pandemic; a moment in human history when we knew what was expected of us. What hope do we have on getting on the same page about climate change, and what it takes to solve it? Especially when, perhaps, the most effective solution demands a complete disruption of our capitalistic society and its' drive for short-term profits over long-term sustainability. What hope do w...

Hello!  Guess who's back? ME! I've had a bit of a busy October; filled with emotional highs, nights I, literally, can't remember and depressing lows. There was one day when I experienced all three (which was great ). In that time, I wish I could say I gained insight or appreciation into my life; at least not the kind of insight I'm willing to immortalise on the public internet. Nor is it the kind of insight that is particularly new, novel or groundbreaking.  If anything, what I learned was the value of time and a break is just the space to think and figure things out. Not everyone has the privilege of this break; of knowing that they can afford to reflect, without it impacting their ability to pay bills or their ability to cope with the world. I barely afforded myself this privilege in October because it was forced upon me when I snapped. Even in that state of pure exhaustion, I did not have the time to think. I merely focused on recovering to the point of economic prod...

There used to be a path near Village Market in Nairobi. This path was adorned with acacia thorns, unseemly rocks and random spots of green grass. It was ugly, and a bother to look at. But it was full of life. Every time you passed, you'd see boda boda drivers catching a break before their next ride. You'd see small kiosk vendors conducting business with passersby, arming them with weapons for the day's battles; the odd cigarette, the random biscuit or the necessary energy drink. You'd witness groups of people, coming together to eat and discuss the events of the day. It was life, and it was messy. Emphasis on 'was.'  That little slice of life is gone. Literally paved over after the management of Village Market rehabilitated the rocky path with grey cabro, tendered to the garden and erected a barbed wire around it. What used to be a colourful slice of human interaction and community is now bland and lifeless; perfectly manicured and just a little less accessible...

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...