In Kenya, a job title is not just employment; it is identity, access, and a full-service lifestyle. Business cards open doors, security guards salute, bank managers return missed calls, and distant relatives suddenly remember your clan. Formal employment does more than pay salaries; it quietly runs people’s lives.
That is why many professionals struggle badly once employment ends. Retrenchment, retirement, resignation, or a failed political attempt often exposes an uncomfortable truth. Without the employer’s badge, many highly capable people suddenly appear lost, not stupid, just unprepared for independence.
Kenya’s labour data puts this into perspective. According to KNBS, only about 17 to 20 per cent of working Kenyans are in formal employment, yet this small group enjoys disproportionate structure, stability, and social capital. The other 80 per cent survive in informal work, where self-organisation is not a skill; it is oxygen.
Corporate life comes with invisible support systems that slowly replace personal capacity. Office drivers handle movement. Personal assistants manage calendars, schedule meetings, and remind you of your own deadlines. Support staff process school fees, book flights, organise shopping, and sometimes coordinate household repairs. Some offices indirectly manage private homes better than the owners do. Life becomes a series of forwarded emails and approved requests.
Over time, judgment, initiative, and even memory get outsourced. Decisions come with templates. Problems arrive pre-solved. Authority is borrowed from the organisation, not earned individually. So when employment ends, the shock is not just about money; it is about suddenly having to think again.
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A 2023 IHRM survey showed that over 60 per cent of retrenched professionals struggle to re-enter productive work even when they receive severance packages. Capital exists, ideas exist, but execution collapses. The structure is gon,e and so are the guardrails.
This explains why some very successful executives fail at private business. They grew companies where they were employed, expanded markets, managed teams, and hit targets. Yet when they start their own ventures, things fall apart. Managing systems you do not own is different from building one from scratch. Reporting to a board is easier than waking up and reporting to yourself.
Politics offers a public version of the same lesson. Kenya has seen senior executives leave comfortable offices to contest elective seats. While employed, they commanded crowds and respect. On their own, without employer brands, logistics, and organised support teams, many struggle. IEBC results consistently show first-term candidates from business ownership backgrounds outperform corporate converts. Personal networks beat polished PowerPoint skills every time.
In villages across the country, the pattern is familiar. You meet someone introduced as “he used to be a top executive.” Apart from executive English and impressive stories, there is little to show. Years after losing a job, some are still job-hunting well past their productive age. Even when offered capital to start something, they stall. They are excellent at receiving instructions, not at giving themselves direction.
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Contrast this with the jua kali sector. Informal workers contribute over 30 per cent of Kenya’s GDP and employ millions. They wake up daily with no HR department, no insurance, and no calendar reminders. What they build instead is adaptability, social capital, and resilience. When one plan fails, another begins before lunch.
Employment is not the enemy. Jobs build skills, discipline, and exposure. The problem starts when employment replaces personal capacity instead of strengthening it. Some job titles open doors that people mistake for personal achievement. When the title disappears, the doors close.
The lesson is simple and uncomfortable. As you climb the corporate ladder, build parallel strength. Networks not owned by your employer. Income streams that do not need approval. Life skills that survive your last working day.
Life needs both the employed professional and the jua kali hustler. Different lanes, same economy.
The danger lies in confusing the company system with personal strength. Jobs end. Life does not pause.
About the Author
Mulumi Mwangi is a seasoned businessman with more than five decades of life experience, bringing a rare depth of perspective to both enterprise and writing. Trained as an electrical engineer, he has founded, built, and managed ventures across diverse sectors, including advertising, marketing, agribusiness, real estate, and fintech.
His writing is firmly grounded in lived experience. It draws from family life as a father, husband, brother, and uncle; from public life through his service as a political party official; and from the hard lessons of business, both failure and success. These experiences, combined with everyday social interactions, have shaped a reflective and pragmatic worldview.
Mulumi’s work is offered as a personal perspective rather than a prescription. His views are candid, experience-driven, and open to debate—acknowledging that insight is often refined through dialogue, reflection, and the humility to accept that one may be right or wrong.
Contact: [email protected]
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