My Cousin's Tax Free Empire in Ushago Has Gotten Me Rethinking  My Life Choices 

Earlier this year, I attended an event at an uncle’s home in one of Nairobi's leafy suburbs. It was a birthday cum graduation party for his daughter - one of my cousins. 

It naturally turned into a sort of family get-together. 

Now, it has been a couple of years since I met some of these cousins. You know how unforgiving Nairobi is to extended families with shaky foundations. 

My cousins and I - we’ve all quite grown up. Some thriving, some just... let’s say, surviving.

We hung out on the lawns, catching up - giving side eyes to the glum faced catering team. The official ‘cake cutting’ session and speeches were set for noon.  

At some point, I overheard Auntie (birthday girl’s mother) go off on one of my cousins, Kim - an accountant by profession - who’d been ‘between jobs’ for a year, or so. 

Now, the poor guy was just hanging out, cracking non-committal jokes at a non-performing politician we had elected in the village. 

Then, Auntie happened.

She’s famous in the family for her knack of shooting straight from the hip. The backdrop is that Auntie had apparently pulled strings for Kim’s previous job, which he’d somehow ‘messed up’. 

"Haiya, Kim - You are here? You came?”

Not a polite "Hey, Kim. How do you do...."

Or, something subtle like - "Hey, Kim, may I have a word ....”

Just a straight-up implied  “Why are you here after messing up a job I had pulled all the strings for” kind of thing. 

The whole lawn went silent. I was ten yards away from Kim - but, I caught a few stray arrows of embarrassment. 

Suddenly, Kim was aware of his faded khakis, battered sneakers and worn leather jacket. 

That’s when I realized how highly people rate formal employment and job titles. If you do not have a job title, family increasingly finds you irrelevant - like, respect is pegged on your job title - no matter how little you actually earn. 

What most of my cousins didn’t know was that Kim was probably doing better than them all - unemployed state and all.

Understandably so, as most of this crowd hadn’t been in the village for a year or so. 

After his job contract ended, Kim had accepted his situation very well and settled in the village. He had invested lightly in agro-farming which had grown exponentially over the last several months. 

Kim enjoyed a decent monthly income from the farm - chicken meat and eggs move fast with an insatiable market demand. He had rabbits, ducks, pigeons and a rather cocky lock of turkeys.

Last Christmas, I saw Kim sell off a pair of turkeys for an astonishing Ksh10,000 - each! I was shocked! Tax free income with almost zero expenses. They were free range. 

I had spent lots of evenings with Kim. I knew, for a fact, that if his former employer offered a double salary, more off days and other perks - he’d never go back. 

Problem is, Kim didn't know to explain that to his Auntie who viewed him as an absolute failure. Oh, he’d also forgotten (not unable) to shop for the latest designer clothing. 

Every other cousin on that lawn had a flashy phone, trendy clothes and bank-financed cars in the driveway. They had fancy job titles, yes - but, hey - monthly bills and loans had them all on the redline. 

I was pretty sure very few cousins there had shares in a Sacco, unlike the unemployed Kim - he had gradually built a nest egg from his eggs income. Excuse the pun. 

I didn’t know what I really wanted, then.

Do I get a job in the city and join the 9 - 5 bandwagon, or - follow Kim’s path - eke out a tax free albeit less glamorous self-employment lifestyle?

The latter also comes with a ton of freedom!

Truth is, family and society is very judgemental on an unemployed man. Somehow, your worth is tied to your title and perceived income. 

You can, however, take a different path with a set of unconventional skills and still be a financial success. 

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