world view - Al Kags — Strategist, Social Entrepreneur, Writer

November 15, 2015

OdeToYouth: Lesson 4: Travel as often as you can

I have had the good fortune to travel to many parts of the world - for a few days in some cases and a few months in others. The places that I visited for a day or two, to attend a conference don't count in ...

November 4, 2015

#OdeToYouth – Lesson 3: (Guest blogger) – No success without Sacrifice.

My friend, who writes the #PassionatelyKenyan blog is also an ex-youth like me - she is my age. She is a C-level executive for a large government organisation and I can tell you for sure, she has come a looong way. Here's her unedited story. I am at ...

November 1, 2015

#OdeToYouth: Lesson 2 – Learn how to sweep a floor

My last day of high school was a Thursday. My mother, one of several accomplished hoteliers and caterers in our family, had arranged that I would start apprenticeship at the Tropical African Dream Hotel in Malindi. Apprentices at the hotel were essentially being given practical ...

October 30, 2015

#OdetoYouth: Lesson 1 – Learn hard, Make a brave choice

I left Malindi, where I grew up for a major part of my life on January 6th 2000. I knew that moving to the great big city - at a time that my parents had different ideas of what I should do after high school, ...

October 28, 2015

Ode to youth: 30 days of reflections from an ex-youth.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have spent a bit of time with young(er) people who have come to "sit at my feet" as it were. I really would never imagined the experience of having 'youths' come to see me for advice. It made ...

October 25, 2015

How many ICU Beds do we have in Kenya?

Over the last couple days, (well, mostly yesterday) I took up the effort of trying to find out just how many ICU Beds we have in Kenya. The findings so far were discouraging: Kenyatta National Hospital (top referral hospital in East Africa) ...

July 10, 2015

A grand old man passes away, leaving life-long lessons behind.

When I met Mungai Gatoro in 2009, I was awed by his simple eloquence - regardless of what language he was speaking. He spoke Gikuyu, Kimeru, Kiembu, Kiswahili, English and French flawlessly. It was interesting to watch him outside his homestead speaking with different people in ...

April 27, 2015

Of bored youth and the rise of pedestrianism

Today I had the good fortune of spending some quality time with a young lady who I work with closely. In the discussion that we had, I learnt that we as a country (and maybe globally) - certainly those of us getting on with age ...

April 8, 2015

Proposals to build on: How about we crowd-implement mega public projects?

In my blogpost from two days ago, I made some proposals for a concerted effort to make the northern frontier of Kenya more secure - from Lokichoggio and Sibiloi in the Northwest to Pokot and Marsabit slightly further south to Garissa, Wajir and Mandera. A ...

February 25, 2015

Larry Madowo on Digital Migration (Oops!) – a hoi polloi response.

Larry Madowo has spoken on digital migration and as a Kenyan (who is a big Larry Madowo fan), I am perplexed. For one, I am perplexed at his tone. As a public personality myself (okay, just on social media - and not nearly as big time ...

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