Academic writing in Kenya is a bustling field that has employed thousands of Kenyans. It’s a great option for those seeking online work opportunities and a source of income.
However, note that academic writing is not an easy task. It demands a lot of time, commitment, excellent attention to detail, and strong written and communication skills in English.
Zack Thuita, the director of Luxe Homes real estate provider, is one of the pioneers in the academic writing field in Kenya. Speaking to Jaymo Ule Msee, Zack disclosed that in a good month, he was making no less than Sh. 1 million from his academic writing.
Born and raised in Central Kenya, Thuita is the 13th child in a family of 14 children. He recalled attending school with Jaymo Ule Msee until they completed high school together.
After high school, back in the day, many people used to wait for two years before going to university. During that time, Thuita worked and earned a good amount of money. He also sold two cows prior to joining KU, making Sh. 87,000.
“It was enough to see me through my expenses. You know on campus, when you have Sh. 87,000 and HELB, you have something. Nobody can know how far you’ve come,” he said.
Zack Thuita recalled using part of the money he had to buy KenGen shares during the IPO. As an economics first-year undergraduate, they would analyse with his friends and collectively he made profits of over Sh. 90,000 which he’d use to pay school fees and CDS.
Thuita is also a CPA(K). After campus, he struggled to land a job. He worked at Jubilee and NIC Bank as a sales agent.
“Both didn’t work for me very well. They were more of a training ground in sales. I never knew that God was preparing me for marketing,” he says.
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He later quit the job and started plucking and selling avocados for export in Gatundu. However, soon it dawned on him that the avocado business is seasonal and unsustainable. Afterwards, he decided to venture into the academic writing field.
“We were among the pioneers in that. The Kibaki government gave us a breakthrough because there were no white-collar jobs as promised. That’s when Faiba came and at least it was possible to do jobs online,” he narrated.
He asserted that academic writing had very good returns, especially for those who did it while still on campus. Thuita has done academic writing for over 8 years, from 2009 until 2017.
He transformed a 2-bedroom house in Kahawa Wendani into an office space. He had employed 25 on-site workers and many remote workers from various Kenyan cities.
“We did that work, we can say it was quite rewarding. On a good month, we could make slightly over Sh. 1 million,” he said noting that they would work for over 18 hours and get excessively fatigued.
In 2017, he felt a burnout and decided to switch to the transport business. While doing the academic writing, he bought 2 matatus which plied the Kisumu-Kakamega route, 2 lorries and 4 taxis. Some of these businesses got his fingers burnt and didn’t go well for him.
With his 2 lorries, he would often be contracted to be a supplier for construction sites. This was how he decided to get into property sales and development.
“A friend got stuck and asked for my help in executing two units. I did it very efficiently and I saw that I had great potential. We then registered Luxe Homes Ltd in January 2020.”
