Dear Kenyan Youth: If You Can Hustle for Today, You Can Plan for Tomorrow — Why Your Future Needs NSSF Now

The Kenyan youth is stuck in survival mode. Unemployment bites harder than a Nairobi landlord in January. Depression and crime lurk on every corner, and the rising suicide rates paint a bleak portrait of a generation cornered by economic despair. We’ve been raised to fight for today — to wake up and hustle, not to plan, not to dream, not to imagine a soft landing. Our national anthem should be ‘Leo ni leo, asemaye kesho ni mwongo’ because, let’s face it, very few are thinking of tomorrow.

Yet here lies the tragedy. While we are lost in today’s chaos, tomorrow is silently preparing its ambush. Retirement is not a thing for the old — it’s a thing for the young, because only the young can prepare for it. But who is preparing? Teachers, military officers, civil servants, and MPs with golden pensions written into their contracts. The rest of us? We’re on God’s pension plan — divine intervention and the occasional M-Pesa from our struggling children.

Kenya’s pension ecosystem, as per the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), is still embryonic. Only 20% of the workforce is covered by any formal pension scheme. Let that sink in — 80% of Kenyans will grow old without a financial parachute. And who forms the biggest chunk of this endangered demographic? The youth.

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) was created to fill this gap — a national savings scheme where even the humblest boda rider can plan for retirement like a Cabinet Secretary. But NSSF is often treated like that uncle at family gatherings — always there, often ignored, only remembered when there’s a crisis. But the new NSSF Act has changed things. It’s not just a mandatory deduction for employed people — it’s a flexible, voluntary, mobile-friendly, interest-earning fund that every youth can join. Even the jua kali welder in Kariobangi or the TikTok content creator in Rongai.

Read Also: How To Seamlessly Access Your NSSF Retirement Benefits In Kenya

We say the future is digital, the future is tech — but the truth is, the future is funded. A youth with no retirement plan is a ticking time bomb, set to explode at 60. Studies show that many retirees without a pension die within three years. Not from illness — from despair, lack of care, and loneliness.

When the government revised the NSSF model, it wasn’t just for the employed. It opened the door for freelancers, casuals, SMEs, gig workers — the very people who dominate Kenya’s economic engine. Yet uptake remains laughably low. Because, somehow, pension sounds like an old man’s affair. Our generation would rather spend 10K on a Sunday plan than stash Ksh 500 into a fund that earns interest.

But let’s talk numbers. If you start saving Ksh 500 a month from age 25, and NSSF gives you a conservative 6% annual return, by age 60, you’ll have over Ksh 750,000. Add in employer contributions, voluntary top-ups, and compounding, and you’re easily over Ksh 1 million. Now imagine if 5 million youth did this. We’d build a national buffer. A retirement fortress.

Yet, we don’t. Why? Because the system doesn’t talk to us in our language. NSSF is still catching up with digitization. But change is happening. From USSD contributions to online statements, the process is getting easier. But the youth must now do the other part — believe that they deserve a soft retirement.

If the NSSF were a vibe, it would be your grandma’s Kibuyu, where she secretly hides money for December. Except this time, it’s regulated, it earns interest, and it doesn’t depend on chicken sales. It’s modern, mobile, and mandatory for a better life. And yes, it beats saving under your mattress or buying land from Twitter salesmen with no titles.

Pension isn’t boring. Poverty in old age is boring. Begging your son to send you fare is boring. Attending the funerals of friends who died penniless is boring. But building a future with NSSF? That’s bold. That’s visionary. That’s fire.

Think about it — you insure your phone, your car, your hustle. Why not ensure your old age? That’s the one thing you’re guaranteed to experience if you’re lucky. Retirement is coming like an unpaid loan — you better be ready, or it will embarrass you at the worst time.

So here’s the deal: The youth are not just the future of NSSF. They are NSSF. If we don’t enroll, contribute, and engage, then NSSF will be a ghost building by the time we need it. It must be shaped by our needs, powered by our participation, and driven by our realities.

A nation that cares for its youth must train them to care for their future selves. And a youth that claims to be woke must start saving — because real wokeness isn’t protesting bad governance and then aging into poverty. Real wokeness is outsmarting the system and showing up at 65 with enough to retire, rest, and reminisce.

You, dear Kenyan youth, can predict your future. It is written not in the stars but in your NSSF account. Join. Contribute. Secure. Repeat. Because today’s savings is tomorrow’s freedom.

Read Also: A Youth Who Does Not Save For Tomorrow Is Preparing For Poverty To Come Uninvited — And Poverty, Unlike Rain, Doesn’t Ask For Permission To Fall