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#028 From Rage to Resolve: Stoic Leadership and the Path Forward
Reclaiming our Republic through Wisdom, Courage, Justice, and Self-Discipline
Rey Mungai
July 11, 2025
"Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself."
In moments of political and social turmoil, it’s easy to be consumed by outrage or apathy. But what if we used this moment to embody a different kind of leadership? A more focused kind. One rooted not in political allegiance, but in timeless principles.
This week, I want to invite you, especially citizens of Kenya, to reflect on what it means to lead. Not through title or authority, but through personal virtue. As citizens, creators, entrepreneurs, and community members, how can we bring about the change we seek by first becoming it ourselves?
"Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it."
Kenya is at a critical inflection point. Since 2024, we’ve seen an awakening—a bold, youth-led movement demanding accountability, equity, and real governance. The courage on the streets is undeniable. The anger is justified. But anger alone will not dismantle broken systems. It will not restore the lives already lost, or repair the damage caused by decades of greed and betrayal.
As I reflect on this moment as a Kenyan youth, a father, a creative, an entrepreneur, and an Africapitalist, I refuse to stay silent.
What we need now is not just protest. We need principled, virtuous leadership.
Leadership rooted not in performance or party loyalty, but in truth, courage, and discipline.
The question before us is no longer “what will they do?”
It’s: what will we do?
Because silence is no longer neutral. In times of injustice, it becomes complicity.
The Failure of Performance Politics
For decades, Kenya’s political landscape has been defined by theatrical campaigns, tribal allegiances, corruption, and violence meted out against its own citizens. Leadership has been largely reactionary—quick to posture during crisis, yet silent when structural reform is urgently needed. And when they do speak, it’s often with threats or indifference, a clear signal that the wellbeing of the people is not their priority.
The promises are loud. The results? Quiet — if they exist at all.
The Stoics would call this out for what it is: vanity.
In a time that demands Justice, we get delay. When we need Wisdom, we get empty slogans. Instead of Self-Discipline, we see indulgence and impunity. And where there should be Courage, we find cowardice dressed as diplomacy.
Too many in positions of influence, including those who benefit quietly from proximity to power, choose silence to preserve comfort. But let’s be clear: silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality. It is complicity.
And that does not stand with me.
If you stay quiet to protect your seat at the table while others bleed for freedom, dignity, and equity, then do not expect a voice when we finally build the Kenya we all deserve.
Four Stoic Virtues as a New Standard
Wisdom
We need leaders who think long-term. Leaders who listen before speaking. Leaders who seek truth — not applause. Wisdom isn’t about IQ; it’s about discernment and emotional clarity. It’s the ability to see complexity without flinching and to act with intention, not impulse.
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
As someone who has built a life around creativity, systems thinking, and design, I’ve learned that wisdom means seeing beyond the noise; beyond vanity metrics and populist distractions and into the heart of sustainable change. That’s what our leadership has lacked.
When this regime reduces the voices of protesters to “paid noise,” when they twist narratives to cover failures, when they invest more in optics than outcomes, they betray a lack of wisdom.
What’s become clearest to me is this: Kenya’s leadership crisis is not about capacity, it’s about character. We have the talent. We have the tools. What we lack is the moral clarity to wield them well.
I used to assume our leaders meant well, that missteps came from ignorance. Now I know better and that knowing fuels my commitment to stay vigilant, informed, and willing to unlearn.
Staying grounded in truth means tuning out the spin and tuning into real voices, especially those at the grassroots. It means slowing down, reading deeply, listening closely, and never mistaking noise for knowledge.
Courage
Not the kind that trends. The kind that transforms. Courage that risks your seat at the table to speak truth. Courage that calls out injustice even from friends. Courage that builds, even when building feels like resistance.
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”
Right now, courage looks like this: saying what needs to be said even if it costs you. Not for attention, but because silence is betrayal. I write, I build, I create because to do otherwise would be to concede.
In my work, courage means crafting ventures that defy old narratives, platforms that highlight African excellence, not as charity, but as power.
Yes, I fear being shot, arrested, abducted, misunderstood, and dismissed. Being seen as “just a young person.” But I speak anyway. Because I know real change doesn’t start with permission, it starts with principle.
Africapitalism, to me, is courageous economics. It’s investing in solutions that don’t just look good on pitch decks but actually solve real problems. It’s choosing people over performance. Impact over clout.
Justice
Justice in Kenya isn’t just broken, it’s been deliberately dismantled. Police brutality is routine. Unemployment feels like a life sentence. Entire counties are ignored until it’s time to harvest votes. These aren’t anomalies. They’re features of a system designed to protect power, not people.
These are not tragic errors, they’re engineered outcomes. And if my work only uplifts those already privileged, then I’m not advancing justice, I’m enabling exclusion.
Practicing justice means paying people fairly, honoring their time, listening without defensiveness, and choosing to see those the system tries to erase. It means refusing to look away. Especially when looking away benefits you.
Self-Discipline
The quietest virtue. The hardest one to fake. Self-discipline is what keeps us rooted when the world rewards chaos. It is the governor of ego, the extinguisher of excess, and the foundation of trust.
“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
Our leaders demand restraint from the public, yet operate with unchecked extravagance. Bloated budgets, foreign trips, self-serving laws. Discipline is preached but not practiced.
And yet, I get it. Discipline is hard. Even for me, the daily temptations are real — doomscrolling, rage-tweeting, distraction disguised as productivity. But I fight them because clarity demands it.
My discipline is not perfect, but it is intentional. I ground myself in morning reflection, block out focused time to build, and learn from those who are doing the hard, unglamorous work of nation-building without applause.
I choose breathwork over bitterness. Strategy over spite. Purpose over performance.
Because we cannot ask the system to be what we are not willing to be ourselves.
So what now?
We channel the rage into resolve. As Stoics and as citizens, we focus on what we can control. We build.
We build businesses that serve real needs, not just profits.
We teach others the virtues we want in our leaders.
We hold institutions accountable not just in protest, but through participation.
We vote. We organize. We collaborate across lines that once divided us.
And we speak. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Especially then.
Final Reflection
As Kenya grapples with a generational moment of reckoning, we can either point fingers or point inward. This post is not about parties or politics. It’s about principle. About what kind of citizen, leader, and human being you choose to be.
Let this week be a return to your internal constitution — the one no government can corrupt.
"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one."
Change will not come from politicians alone. It will come from people who choose to embody the values missing from our institutions. It will come from creatives who design better systems, entrepreneurs who build with integrity, and everyday citizens who commit to acting justly even when no one is watching.
This is not a call to withdraw. It’s a call to lead.
In your home. In your work. In your circle.
With Wisdom. With Courage. With Justice. With Discipline.
The Cost of Silence
It is no longer theoretical. The absence of virtue in our leadership has taken lives.
When Wisdom is abandoned, misinformation thrives. When Courage is replaced with cowardice, injustice flourishes. When Justice is ignored, civilians suffer. And when Self-Discipline is missing, power is abused.
As citizens and as Stoics, we cannot turn away.
We may not control those in power, but we control how we show up. We can resist cynicism. We can organize with purpose. We can hold space for truth. And we can honor the dead not just in mourning but through meaningful action.
To every Kenyan who has lost their life fighting — or simply existing — in the pursuit of a freer, fairer nation:
Your names are not forgotten. Your sacrifice is not in vain.
We carry your memory forward by embodying the Kenya you died hoping to see.
A Kenya grounded in:
🧠 Wisdom to understand.
💪🏽 Courage to act.
⚖️ Justice to protect.
🧘🏽 Self-Discipline to endure.
Let us be the generation that does not forget. Let us be the citizens who choose virtue when leadership does not. Let us be the builders of the Kenya we all deserve.
Speak soon,
-Rey
Sophia • Andreia • Dikaiosyne • Sophrosyne
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