- Kenya’s middle class is seeking more income security.
- Hillary Muhalya urges lawful side hustles.
- Building assets can strengthen financial resilience.
America’s side-hustle boom shows even secure jobs no longer guarantee financial safety, a warning Kenya’s middle class should heed.
An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that Americans across income levels once held second jobs at similar rates. That has changed. Middle-income workers are now more likely to juggle multiple jobs, and college graduates made up roughly half of multiple jobholders by 2024, up from about 35 per cent in the 1990s.
This is not simply about wanting more money. It reflects a growing reluctance to trust a single income, and Kenya should pay attention.
Kenya’s hustle economy is older and deeper than America’s. Kenyans have long combined employment with farming, small business, property, transport, tutoring and informal trade.
What is changing, however, is who is hustling. More salaried and professional Kenyans are looking beyond the payslip, not for luxury, but for protection against rising costs, job uncertainty and financial shocks.
For an American middle-income worker, a second job is often a buffer. For many Kenyan workers, it can be both a buffer and a necessity, given the pressure that housing, school fees, healthcare, transport and family obligations place on a single salary.
The lesson is not simply “get a side hustle.” It is to avoid depending entirely on one income stream, without wrecking the job that pays for today.
Any side hustle must fit within a worker’s contract, workplace policy and the law. It must not misuse employer resources, create improper competition or hide a conflict of interest. Public officers face extra scrutiny under Kenya’s Conflict of Interest Act, 2025.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
The safest principle: earn more without compromising the job you are paid to do. Farming should not mean skipping duty hours. An online shop should not consume office time. Property and consultancy ventures should be managed outside official duties.
The smartest side hustle is not the one offering the quickest cash. It is one that builds an asset, a skill or an income stream that does not swallow every hour of the day.
A worker who saves, invests or develops marketable skills from extra income is building wealth. One who earns more but spends it all is simply working harder to stand still.
The American data also carries a warning: education is no longer an economic shield. If graduates increasingly need multiple incomes, Kenyan professionals should not assume a degree or a permanent job makes them immune to disruption. A teacher, accountant, journalist or engineer can all build transferable expertise beyond their main employer
Still, Kenya must resist romanticising the hustle. A worker doing eight hours of formal employment, then running a second business, risks exhaustion and family strain. Telling people to “hustle harder” is not a policy.
Government and employers must also address wages, productivity, housing costs and job security, even as workers save, invest and diversify responsibly.
Kenya’s lesson is not that every worker needs two or three jobs. It is that financial resilience needs more than a payslip, while professional responsibility means protecting the job that provides it.
Work fully. Hustle lawfully. Invest wisely. Build assets that eventually make security less dependent on how many hours you can work.
By Hillary Muhalya
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