June usually follows a familiar rhythm of half-year reviews, tax deadlines, performance conversations, and budget pressures.
But for Kenyans, the atmosphere feels different and heavier this year.
We had the Gen Z commemoration yesterday, a day that many now call maandamano day. And if you’re honest, the dust hasn’t settled yet. It probably won’t until mid or late August given that this is now maandamano season as we wait for SabaSaba demos in July.
For many, the horizon feels shorter, more volatile, and harder to predict. The combination of economic pressure, budget uncertainty, and recurring disruptions has created a climate where many leaders and business owners are operating in a constant state of reaction.
We didn’t get here by chance. It’s been 3 years in the making.
The disruptions of 2024 caught us unawares.
We hoped 2025 would offer a reprieve, but it proved to be a challenging year.
Now, in 2026, the signs of this current shakeup were visible.
While these seasonal disruptions manifest as political events, they are fueled by a persistent economic crisis.
We should have anticipated this rhythm. We should have prepared for it and made different decisions, so we wouldn’t be caught off guard yet again. But here we are.
What’s even more scary is that this time next year, you could be reading this exact same post. There will be the same heaviness, scramble, and “We should have prepared better for this!” Except that in 2027, this season overlaps with the run-up to the general election.
The cycle repeating itself isn’t guaranteed, but it’s better to be prepared so that you weather the storm with more ease, should it come. What you do in the interim is the variable you actually control.
You can get caught up in wishing you were readier. Or, you could spend the months between now and then making different choices.
Such seasons are especially hard for women in management, leadership and business. This continuous cycle of external pressure does not just demand your time if you’re the one who is relied upon to hold things together at work and in your family. It also drains your ability to manage your capacity effectively.
The Preparedness Gap
You have likely attended countless seminars ad workshops on organisational risk management. You know how to stress-test your business or company’s financials and operations against market volatility.
But these seminars and trainings do not train you on how to build a personal disaster-preparedness plan for a systemic, recurring disruption. And you have to build your personal strategy while navigating the volatile season in the marketplace.
Our instinct is to become hyper-vigilant when external uncertainty peaks. You find yourself working harder, trying to run faster, checking numbers more than usual, and absorbing the anxiety of the people around you.
However, high performance under chronic uncertainty often leads to exhaustion. It also:
- Shrinks your bandwidth: You become so occupied with navigating immediate weekly disruptions that you lose the space to think about your long-term trajectory.
- Leads to overwhelm: Because you are exceptionally good at finding solutions, you keep absorbing new complexities until you are overwhelmed, overworked and feeling stuck.
- Defer what matters most to you: It becomes easy to say, “I will look at my own life or career alignment later, once this season passes.” But waiting for a quieter season is a losing strategy. Q3 will be nearly gone by the time the dust settles in August. Then the Q4 rush begins soon after. Beyond that, we shift into the intense heat of the 2027 pre-election and election cycle. A cycle that will fall in the 2027 maandamano season.
The Window of Opportunity to Manage Your Capacity
It’s not all doom and gloom despite what the politicians and media want us to believe.
We all have a brief, critical window right now to determine our personal runways. It doesn’t mean that you will have all the answers today. But you can reclaim your agency by deciding to no longer live your life and leadership in a permanent state of reaction, waiting to see which way the economic or political wind blows.
If you establish, test, and refine your personal preparedness framework this year, you reduce the chances of being caught off guard when this same disruption overlaps with the general elections next year.
Here are 3 questions you can start exploring to help you manage your capacity when the horizon keeps shifting.
1. Where is your time, money, or energy currently leaking?
This is where you focus on your immediate reality. You don’t aim to do more. It’s more about looking at your responsibilities and evaluating where your time, money, and energy are currently leaking.
What limits need to be drawn around your commitments right now so you don’t strain your capacity before Q3 even begins? Identify and start plugging these leaks now.
2. What skills, networks, or assets could you reposition right now, not later?
Preserving your finances becomes paramount during economic downturns. It helps to review your current setup and also identify where you can build leverage.
How can you stretch what you currently have? Which of your skills, networks, or assets can help you survive, earn more, and thrive the market landscape shifts significantly?
Working through these questions will help you start adapting to the situation while improving your finances.
3. If external conditions don’t improve as quickly as you hope, who do you choose to be anyway?
Many people are living on the hope that the next general election will change things for the better for them. What happens if your hopes for the political or economic landscape are dashed next year?
You will have to live with a challenging reality until things eventually settle down. But you have something you can control, no matter what: your reaction and who you choose to be.
This is where you stop measuring success by external markers and start designing a life that is aligned with your core values, regardless of the external climate. So, who do you choose to be, and how do you choose to pivot should things not work in your favour?
Secure Your Ecosystem
People probably see you as a strong woman, and maybe that is also how you think of yourself. Chances are that you are also the anchor for your family and in some of your social circles.
Claiming your own agency is just step one. The next step is utilising this current season to replicate this sense of strength and stability in the people who rely on you.
You cannot continue to be the shock absorber for those around you because it will eventually break you. You must cascade the skill down so that you stop carrying the mental and emotional load alone.
Securing your ecosystem requires a shift in how you lead in 2 key areas:
- Operationalise Mental Health: Chronic uncertainty places a cognitive and emotional load on leaders that cannot be solved through productivity tools alone. Seeking professional mental health support for yourself is no longer optional. It is mandatory support in high-stress situations and environments. It’s also crucial for your family and team, instead of making it an optional perk or a last resort during a crisis. Just as you wouldn’t navigate this economy without financial and legal advisors, navigating this emotional climate requires expert psychological anchoring.
- Encourage Co-Creation: Replicating stability doesn’t mean drafting new corporate policies, business operational manuals, or family rules that you hand down. It means leading inclusive, candid discussions. Whether in the office or at the dining table, facilitate conversations that allow your team and family to share their realities and develop solutions. People naturally take ownership of a preparedness plan when it addresses the organisation (or household) AND the individuals within it.
Step Off the Treadmill
You cannot build a new blueprint while you are actively putting out fires. But creating a preparedness framework does not mean adding ten new heavy tasks to your plate today.
Right now, the most strategic thing you can do is to temporarily step off the daily operational treadmill. Just long enough to audit where your energy and capacity are actually going, develop a plan that works for you and those who report to or depend on you, and start implementing your plan.
That way, this time next year, you will not be conducing the same reflection again and wishing things were different. Instead, you will be celebrating the choices you made that created a different outcome.
Your Next Step
Here are 3 ways I can help you.
1. Beyond the Brave Face Webinar
This is a live, 90-minute strategy session for the woman who has achieved success but wants her peace back.
In this virtual workshop, we’ll examine the 5 Hidden Taxes of Success together so you can pinpoint which ones are draining your energy. Think of it as a master diagnostic session or an intimate, honest conversation in a room with other women who are also ready to do things differently.
I host this webinar three times a year. It serves as your introductory doorway to the work we do in my deeper program, the 28 Days of Loving Yourself Challenge.
Sign up for my email newsletter and get updates about the webinar.
2. Step into the 28 Days of Loving Yourself Challenge (28DC)
28DC is a supportive step-by-step self-care and self-love program that I host 3x a year in February, August, and November. This is for you if you’re ready to do the foundational self-care work required to help you safely start removing the armour and prioritise your well-being.
Click here to find out more and join the next 28DC cohort
3. Book a 1-1 Clarity Session
If you are navigating leadership, business decisions, career transitions, or family responsibilities in this season, a Clarity Session can help you identify where your capacity is leaking, what leverage already exists in your ecosystem, and how to build a more resilient runway for the months ahead.
Over to You…
Of the three questions (capacity audit, building leverage, and choosing your direction), which one did you find yourself avoiding? Let me know in the Comments.
(Images by New Dawn Coaching)
