Startup woes expose disruption myth

OLX offices, March 2015. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

The past few months have seen several startups in Kenya close shop, scale down or report operational difficulties of some kind that have cast doubt on their future.

The collapse of these start-ups, some of which recently raised billions of shillings in investor financing, has exposed the underlying myth of "disruption" that drives much of the Nairobi "Silicon Savannah" narrative, and the problematic attitude of investors from the West that perpetuate this hype.