You Don’t Fix Your Money by Saving more
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By Thuita Gatero, Managing Editor, Africa Digest News. He specializes in conversations around data centers, AI, cloud infrastructure, and energy.
Dr. K once said something simple but revolutionary: “People think that in order to fix a problem messing up their life, they must solve it. But that’s backwards. You don’t need to solve it. You need to move toward it.”
That single sentence could change how we talk about money in Kenya.
Because if you listen to the endless advice fed to the average Kenyan worker “earn more,” “save more,” “start investing” you would think our financial struggles were just a matter of effort. That if we all worked harder or learned how to save, we would somehow escape the system. But that is not true. It is like telling someone drowning in a river to “swim harder” while the current is pulling them under.
The numbers alone tell a brutal story. Nearly 40 percent of Kenyans live below the poverty line , that is over 20 million people who can not meet their most basic needs. The richest 20 percent of households consume almost half of the country’s total income, while the poorest 20 percent share less than nine percent of it.
Same flag. Same anthem. Two different economies.
When someone earning KSh 19,000 a month, Kenya’s approximate median income hears “save 20 percent of your salary,” it is not just tone-deaf; it’s absurd. Rent alone takes nearly half that amount in most towns. Add transport, food, and airtime, and there is nothing left to save. The real story here is not about laziness or poor money habits, it’s about structure. The system rewards those who already have momentum, and punishes those still trying to start moving.
Even our financial system reflects that inequality. Walk into your local bank with KSh 50,000 and ask for investment options. You will likely be told to open a fixed deposit account at around 8 percent interest. With inflation at 4.6 percent in September 2025, that sounds decent until you realise the rich are not parking their money in fixed deposits. They are buying government bonds, investing in early-stage startups, and acquiring land in Ruiru and Kitengela before the rest of us ever hear about it. By the time a company lists on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, insiders have already made their profits.
That is the silent frustration: the system is not designed to make the average Kenyan wealthy. It’s designed to keep them managing. But this is where Dr. K’s insight lands hardest. You don’t need to fix the system to change your life at least not immediately.
You need to act toward it. Movement, even small movement, breaks paralysis. The moment you start taking small steps, applying for better jobs, tracking your expenses, testing small side hustles, talking to friends about pooling resources, your mind shifts from helplessness to participation.
Psychologically, the act of acting relieves stress. It’s the same reason you feel better after cleaning your room, even when your real problem is work stress. The brain rewards forward motion. Inaction, on the other hand, feeds anxiety.
Think about how wealth was historically built elsewhere. In the 1920s, General Motors introduced credit systems so ordinary Americans could buy cars. Soon, banks realised they could do the same for stock purchases and the modern credit economy was born. Credit did not just let people buy; it let them participate in capitalism. Kenya’s system works differently. Here, credit is mostly for survival, not for investment. The rich borrow to grow wealth; the poor borrow to make it to payday.
But change rarely begins at the top. It begins with how we act at the bottom, how we rewire our approach to money. You may not be able to close Kenya’s inequality gap, but you can change your relationship with motion. Instead of waiting for a big financial miracle, you act: track where your money leaks, sell one small service, move KSh 100 daily into a different account, pitch your skills to someone new, learn something that increases your value.
The point is not perfection, it’s participation. Each act, however small, tells your brain: I am not stuck anymore. That is what most personal finance advice misses. It’s not about numbers, it’s about psychology. When you start moving toward your problem, even before you solve it, the problem starts losing power over you.
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