By Nyang’au Araka In the age of instant messaging and virality, a single gesture can eclipse hours of speeches and pages of political statements. So it was when images and short clips showing Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna embracing Ida Odinga at an open gathering began circulating online like rapid fire. The moment was brief, unscripted […]

By the Idler-in-Chief Here in Nyagenke, Njaanuary creeps in chewing loudly, crunching leaf by leaf, like a determined goat that has discovered an unattended kitchen garden. After weeks of December merrymaking; when meat flowed like rumours in Nyagenke Intervillage Open Air Market and plates bent under the weight of nyama, pilau, and other festive declarations […]

They tell the childchoose earlyname your talent at tenand carry it like a passport. They saythe West did it this wayas if history were a templateand hunger a choice. They forgetthose countries built safety netsbefore they taught children to walk the wire.There, falling is survivable. Here, the ground is hard. Our engineers steer motorcycles,their degrees […]

By Isaac Dan Bw’Onyancha President William Ruto’s proposal to establish a National Infrastructure Fund is framed as a bold pathway to transform Kenya into Africa’s Singapore. The promise is attractive. Modern roads, railways, ports and energy systems appeal to a country eager for visible progress. Yet the real danger is not in building infrastructure. It […]

By Isaac Dan Bw’Onyancha Kenyans possess an extraordinary zeal for excellence. What we lack is not talent, ambition, or courage. What we lack is timely institutional support. Again and again, the state appears only after the struggle has been privately won, when applause is cheap and association politically convenient. Consider David Munyua. He requested government […]

By Shem Onderi Too young to be an adult,Too tender to carry the weight of motherhood,A teen mother learns too earlyWhat only time should teach. She is discouraged,The government frowns,The church weeps,And the chief laments in the village square —Yet her heart remains unheard. A national concern,A silent tragedy,A teen mother cannot feed herself,Still clutching […]

Youth unemployment in Kenya is a growing crisis that requires immediate and coordinated intervention. Each year, thousands of young people complete their studies only to face a job market that offers few opportunities aligned with their skills and aspirations. This mismatch often leads to frustration, pushing some into crime, substance abuse, or other harmful behaviours. […]

By Nyang’au Araka The other day, I came across a screenshot online that stopped me in my tracks. Someone had written, “It still feels bizarre to type the late Raila Odinga.” That single line carried the weight of a nation’s disbelief. For many Kenyans, Raila was more than a politician; he was an institution, a […]

By the Idler-in-Chief At the Nyagenke Group of DEB Primary Schools, academic creativity has reached a level only the angels can interpret. The other day, a pupil was asked to “write a poem in five lines.” The young scholar, driven by Nyagenke literalism, believed that he obeyed the instruction faithfully. He wrote POEM in big, […]

By Wanjohi wa Makokha Above the bowed soul, the fly whisk hovers, threads trembling like the last quiver of a star before dawn. The shadow of the patriarch dissolves into the whispering air, his weight folded into the eloquence of silence, and every fiber becomes a conduit through which the cosmos exhales its memories. The […]