The pain of being poor in a world that worships money

When your worth is measured by what you can afford, those with the least pay the highest price

By Yvonne Wambui

Imagine having ten shillings in your pocket while the world expects you to live as though you have everything. Imagine watching friends enjoy things you can only dream of — not for lack of ambition, but because your circumstances will not allow it.

This is the quiet reality of millions of young Kenyans today.

In a society where expensive phones, designer clothes and weekend outings signal success, being broke can feel like a moral failure. Nobody always says it directly, but treatment shifts the moment people discover you cannot afford what they can. Poverty is not met with understanding. Too often, it becomes a reason to look down on someone.

Social media sharpens the wound. Every day, young people scroll through images of travel, birthday dinners and new purchases, rarely seeing the loans, sacrifices and family support behind the highlight reel. The comparison breeds shame. And shame is a heavy thing to carry into a lecture hall on an empty stomach.

Yet behind these struggles are intelligent, talented, determined people whose worth cannot be measured by an M-Pesa balance. A person without money for transport is not without potential. Someone in worn-out shoes may carry more integrity than someone in designer ones.

This is not a call to romanticise poverty. Being poor is hard, limiting and exhausting. Those experiencing it need opportunities and fair treatment, not empty encouragement.

What they do not need is to be made to feel worthless.

Being broke is a circumstance. It should never become a verdict.

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