NJERU: Kenya’s bright future: Why entrepreneurship holds the key to lasting prosperity

Director Africa Afya Healthcare Kenneth Njeru/COURTERSY

 

Lasting prosperity in any nation does not come from government spending alone, nor is it sustained by natural resources or foreign aid. It comes from entrepreneurs; people who see problems around them, decide to fix them, start businesses, employ others and slowly build wealth. Aid and resources can help in the short term, but over time, every successful economy is powered by people who are willing to innovate and execute.

That is why the government’s most important role is not to run the economy, but to enable it. This means getting the basics right: good roads, reliable electricity, affordable internet, functional healthcare and a strong education system. Crucially, it also means fostering a regulatory environment that allows a small business to scale quickly without facing bureaucratic extortion or complex county licensing hurdles.

Singapore is often cited for good reason. When it became independent in 1965, it had very little in terms of natural resources. What it did have was a long-term vision. By investing heavily in education and infrastructure, it built one of the most skilled workforces in the world and positioned itself as a global business and technology hub.

Kenya could not realistically have taken that path in the 1960s or 1970s. Literacy levels were low, and access to education was limited. The human capital required to drive a modern economy simply did not yet exist.

That reality is now changing fast, largely because of technology. Access to knowledge is no longer limited to elite institutions or major cities. While Julius Yego is not known for business success, his story remains one of the clearest and most widely understood examples of what happens when talent in a developing country is given access to information.

Growing up in a rural area without access to elite coaching, Yego taught himself javelin technique by watching videos of the world’s best athletes online. That self-driven learning led him to become world champion in 2015 and an Olympic silver medallist in 2016, demonstrating just how transformative access to knowledge can be.

Artificial intelligence is likely to multiply this effect. AI is lowering barriers across industries by making complex tasks easier, providing access to expertise on demand and shortening learning curves that once took years. This also makes meritocracy easier to quantify, as real-time performance data, whether code output or sales metrics, becomes the true measure of contribution.

As these tools spread, we are likely to see many young Kenyans building companies, creating solutions, and competing globally in ways that would have seemed unrealistic just a decade ago.

At the same time, success in this new environment must be grounded in humility. Those who thrive today are doing so with tools that previous generations never had. There was no YouTube, no cloud computing and certainly no AI. Many people built businesses and careers under far tougher conditions, without shortcuts or instant access to information. Modern success stories often rest on foundations that simply did not exist before, and that reality should temper how we view ourselves and our opinions.

Difficult choices still lie ahead. Populist ideas can be attractive, especially in hard economic times, but they rarely deliver lasting results. Real progress often takes years, even decades, to show. Kenya is currently benefiting from long-term decisions such as the introduction of free primary education in 2003, which significantly increased school enrolment and helped produce a larger, more educated generation now entering the workforce.

To make the most of this moment, meritocracy needs to become second nature. Opinions should carry weight based on what someone has actually done, not how loud they are or how many followers they have. No one is an expert in everything, and pretending otherwise does more harm than good. Sharing strong opinions on subjects one has never spent thousands of hours working on, often triggered by a short social media clip with its own agenda, adds noise rather than insight.

Social media has made this problem worse. Today, visibility is often confused with competence. Someone with a large following but no record of building a sustainable business is treated as an authority. This misalignment is especially dangerous for young people genuinely trying to learn.

Ironically, some of the most valuable voices in entrepreneurship are the least appreciated by the people who need to listen. A good example is a Kenyan entrepreneur with over two decades of real business experience who recently started a podcast. The discussions are practical, honest and grounded in lived experience, featuring founders who have actually built companies.

Yet the podcast is gaining traction slowly, largely because it avoids fashionable buzzwords and hype. It is a reminder that substance does not always travel as fast as spectacle, but it is substance that ultimately matters.

Kenya’s education system has had its challenges, but it has also quietly shaped many high performers. Subjects like Business Studies and Agriculture in high school introduced practical thinking, enterprise and problem-solving to students. Many Kenyans who excel today in business and agribusiness were first exposed to these ideas in the classroom. It will be interesting to see what the Competency-Based Education system produces, especially as it places greater emphasis on skills, creativity, and individual strengths.

The next challenge is accelerating knowledge transfer. Kenya needs more experienced entrepreneurs openly sharing what they have learned, not just through isolated initiatives, but through structured public-private mentorship programmes and accessible digital platforms led by proven industry veterans. Honest conversations and dedicated mentorship can dramatically shorten the learning curve for the next generation, ensuring that hard-won wisdom is not lost.