What a Billion-Shilling Estate Taught Me About Writing a Will

Episode 2: Why I'm writing a will in my 20s with almost nothing

Earlier on I was, three to four months behind on rent. My business is still struggling. It took me a year and a half to burn through my emergency fund, and some days I live on less than a dollar. And yet, I've started setting aside the little I had as I'm thinking of writing a will for it, including my simcard access.

This probed the question, why would someone with almost nothing think about writing a will?

Because I think we have it backwards. A will isn't a rich person's document. It's a decision to treat what you have, however small, as worth protecting. And when you own little, clarity about it matters more, not less.

Here is what I actually own: a business that isn't yet working, a small start in the savings funds , a phone, a SIM card, mobile money, and a head full of ideas. If something happened to me tomorrow, who would even know where to look?

Unclear arrangements can destroy families. Rekindling the recent Nairobi land dispute, dragged through the courts for over two decades, is a hard example. Two people connected to it were shot dead, eleven months apart. Police say a land dispute was the motive in one of the killings and are investigating the link. Nothing has been proven in court. I'm not here to judge. I'm here because it shows how much...