Articles Tagged Sunny’s Signal

I looked down from the stage. The seats brimmed with the who’s who of Kenya. But they were looking on not with boredom or envy, but with affection. I was speaking at the launch of an autobiography, Concert of Life, by Francis Okomo Okello. I don’t normally attend big socials, but this time I had […]

Some quotations make you laugh out loud—and then stay with you, poking at your thoughts for days. Here’s one that did that to me recently, from the TV series Justified, based on Elmore Leonard’s stories: “If you meet an asshole in the morning, you met an asshole. If you meet assholes all day, you’re the […]

Ever seen turtles hatching?  If you haven’t, make a point of being right there on our sandy shores when this quiet miracle plays out. Tiny turtles, no bigger than a child’s palm, erupt from the darkness of their buried nests. They have never seen the world before, yet they know exactly what to do. In […]

A voice rises across the dining room. One customer is clearly furious, the server is flustered, other diners are watching. The temperature is rising. You’re the manager. What now? Here are three options often seen in the wild. One: Storm in, shove your server aside, apologise like mad, blame your staff, and promise heaven. Later, […]

How often are we tempted to put on a good show, tell a made-up story, sell an illusion? A Potemkin Village is something built or staged to give a false impression of prosperity, success, or good order. It’s a facade that hides a less flattering reality. The term comes from a story that’s probably exaggerated. […]

My son was talking to a close friend about a big change ahead. He would have to start afresh, get used to a new place with new faces, and tackle advanced knowledge. Here’s what the friend said, in conclusion: It will be difficult, but you’ll get through it. What a profound sentence that is. I […]

I was attending my son’s university graduation ceremony recently, and amidst the pomp and parental joy of the great occasion, I caught a snippet of profundity in the air. The university’s chancellor, in giving his congratulatory words to the students, made this phrase his final piece of advice to those going out into the world: […]

I have never been of the crowd.  From a young age, I flinched from the tumult of group interaction and enforced sociability. School playgrounds felt like battlefields, parties a series of uneasy truces. I simply existed on a different frequency. Where others thrived in the noise, I was attuned to silence, solitary trails, and quiet […]

Do you keep getting dumped on because you’re the accommodating one? Perhaps a lot of work lands on your desk because you’re so willing. Perhaps friends and even close relatives take you and your efforts for granted, not seeing how much you do to help them in their lives. If any of this sounds familiar, […]

In the days of yore, currency was in the form of silver or gold coins. If you allowed bad currency (debased, or even counterfeit) to be treated as equal to proper currency, guess what happened? Yep, the proper coins disappeared. People spent the bad money (because—why not?) and hoarded the good money. Eventually, the good […]

I track Gallup’s State of the Global Workforce report, every year. I don’t really know why. It’s the same depressing reading every damn time.  That’s not Gallup’s fault, but if you’re an employer, it might be yours. So what did the 2025 report, recently released, reconfirm? That the pattern remains clear. Here’s an excerpt, using […]

Strategy is about advance thinking. I said so in my book on the subject, Up & Ahead—I even gave it that title because being strategic is about looking up from the details and ahead of the happenings. And yet, that book contains a counterpoint: strategy is also your next five minutes… That framing comes from […]

On Kenyan roads, many drivers seem to be in the grip of a particular madness: the need to get there quicker. On any given highway on any given day, there will be cars overtaking in the most dangerous situations. They will come blazing out past sharp bends. They will squeeze back into their lane with […]

This actually happened. My wife received an online delivery order. She had paid for it. The items were correct. It had come to the right place. But the rider was unable to hand it over—and so the order went back. The absurd sequence began when Mrs B placed an online order at one of our […]

We all respect thinkers. Well, most of us, anyway. Thoughtful people are of immense value in a world running on shallowness and the absence of critical reasoning. They go deep, and they re-emerge with insights, wisdoms, and solutions that regular people cannot. Many folks like to hang out with proper thinkers, at least some of […]

The pause that saves us Creshonda Smith moved to Italy from America a while back, first to Rome and then to a remote town in the far south. She got a huge culture shock. Not about language, food, or fashion; but about attitudes towards rest. In her words: “For most of my life, being busy […]

I was very lucky when I was young to come across this concept: ACTIVATION ENERGY. I want to show it to you today. If you’re feeling stuck, stranded, unable to get going—this idea may just be the trigger you need. It certainly did wonders for me. In science, activation energy is the minimum energy needed […]

Do you know this word? ENSHITTIFICATION. It’s ugly and accurate. Cory Doctorow coined it. It describes what happens when tech platforms, once useful, go bad. Not all at once, but gradually—and then completely. The pattern is simple—and sadly predictable. When we start a great business, we try to be amazing for our customers. Then, we […]

A plain wooden coffin. No ornamentation, no gilded handles. An ordinary pickup truck, serving as the final hearse. A tombstone bearing just one word: Franciscus. And yet, the world stood still. Presidents, monarchs, patriarchs, imams, rabbis. Heads of state and heads bowed in reverence. All gathered in one of the grandest public squares on Earth, […]

I confirmed recently that I have stopped being a newspaper columnist—after more than two decades. And that the ruckus will continue. I have seen it all over those years. My first columns appeared only in print, for online was not really a thing yet. The very first one got pulled—the editor was afraid it might […]