Ndindi Nyoro on Vet Salaries, Debt, and Building Wealth in Kenya

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]In a bold and thoughtprovoking address to veterinary students and professionals, Dinduro delivers a powerful call for economic fairness, financial discipline, and transformational leadership. Speaking candidly on the challenges facing young graduates, he sharply criticizes the glaring salary disparities between veterinary and medical professionals, vowing to push for parliamentary action to correct what he terms as a longstanding injustice. Neuro challenges the next generation to reject smallcale thinking, urging graduates to move beyond conventional career paths and embrace entrepreneurship, innovation, and scalable wealth building ventures. He delivers a strong warning against reckless borrowing and unproductive debt, advocating instead for strategic saving, smart investing, and long-term financial planning as the true path to lasting prosperity.

[00:00:59]Expanding beyond personal success, neuro raises critical concerns about governance, public accountability and national decision making, calling for leadership that places the safety, dignity and future of Kenyans first. The address stands as a compelling blueprint for ambition, financial empowerment and civic responsibility. A powerful message to young professionals determined to shape Kenya's future.

[00:01:30]You'll be graduating soon.

[00:01:33]All of you will be doctors even in titles especially after you go through the remaining process.

[00:01:41]I have friends I was invited by the medical finalists last year.

[00:01:49]You are schoolmates, your college mates and I attended their dinner last year.

[00:01:55]Some of them will be going for the internship in the next few weeks to come. The ones who graduated in deck, they'll be earning approximately 200,000 shillings.

[00:02:09]You will also be proceeding for internship later on and it is unfair that they'll be earning six times more than you.

[00:02:22]We have failed as a country and this should not continue.

[00:02:26]The kind of work you do, the kind of work you do is like a conveyor belt. Whatever we eat makes us who we are in terms of our health. And whatever we eat, you are not only the gatekeepers, but you are the people who make sure that we don't visit our medics as often.

[00:02:53]And therefore, I actually don't see a lot of distinction. It is like talking about the same chain of professionals.

[00:03:01]You deserve more and there is no question about that. And I request my brother Ali, whatever help that you need from us in parliament, we must re this situation. It is not a good situation that the entry level salary of a vet entry level salary is 70,000.

[00:03:27]That of a medical doctor is 196,000.

[00:03:33]How do we explain that even to anyone?

[00:03:37]How is there any explanation?

[00:03:41]So I request all of you especially the leadership do a petition even in parliament. I'll be the champion of it.

[00:03:54]When it starts from you it is to be just politics. So I would request you and especially also the board can help you to do a petition in parliament and you can drop a copy in my office and I'll work on it the same with the same vigor.

[00:04:11]I'm working for the reduction of fuel prices.

[00:04:20]And I say this meaning or with the benefit of knowledge that the same profession you have here in Kenya.

[00:04:32]I was in the US the other day and I was in the UK this year and I can tell you that your profession is sought after in those developed economies. And since I believe Kenya is headed there, it is not our duty to send you where the opportunities are. It is our duty to make our economy better for you here.

[00:05:00]The second point that I want to highlight now I have moved and I want to speak as a business person is also in terms of investments and also your colleague in terms of we are not too far away in terms of age.

[00:05:21]You are leaving the university and you'll be graduating soon.

[00:05:28]You never went to the University of Nairobi for 5 years to be part of the norm.

[00:05:35]The norm that as you go and get your degree as a veterinary doctor, your role is not just about opening an aggro in your local shopping center.

[00:05:49]Our mindset must change from today.

[00:05:58]Some of you are already reserving the next building coming up in your local shopping center. You already booking the ground floor.

[00:06:10]We must break this cycle. It is much more than that. The experience you have gained here, you can we can do all more than that. Our brother from the board has talked about the par para profofessionals in the same sector. They do all that in our villages including where I come from.

[00:06:31]Your 5 years must count for more than that. And I took some time to check before I came here because me I love money. Maybe you you love only animals but I see even by the choice of the hotel I think you love money more than the animals.

[00:06:52]And in that line, I took some time to check the kind of people who have made it so greatly in terms of breaking the glass ceiling when it comes to making money out of your profession. And I found there are even billionaires, vet billionaires, creating business out of the knowledge you gained. Some of them, some are actually in that line. I saw one in America with a company worth $9.1 billion US basically doing that work but of course doing much more in terms of the products you use and their production and I see there is also an opportunity for you to also make money out of your profession. What do I mean? I studied economics in in KU as my for my undergrad.

[00:07:46]But just tell me figure out what business is called economics. Which shop can I open? I say h economic enterprises.

[00:07:58]I have never seen one. We can go to the university and study mathematics. I have never seen a business called mathematics in cooperation.

[00:08:08]The point I'm trying to drive home is the reason we come to the university is to open our mind to do even much more than we were trained to do. If you are lucky enough to do what we were trained to do, you actually already have an advantage because you already ahead of the people who would dwell in the same profession or in the same business. So what am I trying to say? You have versatility that you can work with within the same sector. There are many things you can do and especially on the product part.

[00:08:46]The product part always gives you more money because it's scalable.

[00:08:51]As a vet you can only handle has a great limit of scalability.

[00:08:59]But product has no limit in scalability.

[00:09:03]Whatever you produce you sell within you sell regionary you sell outside completely meaning there is a scale that you can accelerate and I want you and I request you to tap into that the other broad point that I want to to to talk about I don't know what happened in Kenya I don't know whether it's part of our curriculum maybe that is never taught directly Maybe we run it tacitly not explicitly.

[00:09:41]I let me repeat. I don't know who taught us this very farreaching part of the curriculum that we all exercise. I never saw it in primary school. I never saw it in high school. I never saw it in the university. But we all 90% of us practice that part of curriculum without fail.

[00:10:10]that the first jobs we get and especially if you get a job that has a salary either in government or in the private sector but salaries the the formal side of your engagement that in your second month you can't sleep without a loan by the time you get your second salary You actually feel you became a doctor and you became a professional and you became an employee.

[00:10:51]You only feel you are one and actually one when you take a loan.

[00:11:01]I don't know who told us these things that the teachers you'll be graduating with immediately they get a TSC number and they get the letter for TSC they report to that school they don't even go to the bank the bank person takes the form to the school and you sign a loan that some of you even during internship you'll be taking a loan the first job you get don't stay at me like this is Greek. You know yourself and you know I'm talking to you that you get a job as a lecturer in the in a college.

[00:11:42]You get a job as a teacher.

[00:11:44]You get a job in the bank.

[00:11:48]The first thing you do is to take a loan. Who taught us these things about loans?

[00:11:53]And where is the success of these loans that we take? The other day I got a friend teacher of mine.

[00:12:01]They got a job I think two years ago and then I had been invited somewhere. I talked about this point. Then they were telling me because I already took a loan. What did you buy a plot? Where?

[00:12:22]It was some place in Kimabogo in Vika.

[00:12:25]So how much did you buy it?

[00:12:28]H I I think it was 1.2 million. So for how long will you be paying for this product? The next 5 years. What is the interest rate for the for that 5 years?

[00:12:41]The product that would have cost 800,000 he paying maybe 1.2 to 1.3 million shillings. So the next question was the person who bought the pro 5 years ago, how much are they selling it at? It has not gone up. It is the same price I bought this year. So what does that mean?

[00:13:04]The difference between the 800,000 that was the value of the plot 5 years ago, it is still the value of the plot now.

[00:13:13]It means the interest rate you pay to the bank by signing those forms for the next 5 years, you overbought that plot by maybe 500,000.

[00:13:22]Then what is the plot for? It doesn't have a house. You not be living in it or on it. And you are not likely to build on it the next 10 years. So what is it for? As an investment to do what? Capital gains.

[00:13:40]So how how how has been the capital gains in the pros nearing the one you bought for the last 5 years. So what am I trying to say with all these things?

[00:13:52]We come and learn about all the animals under the sun and we get bothered by sleepless nights about exams tomorrow and next week is exam week and the level of stress is unimaginable.

[00:14:12]But no one teaches us about the money when we start earning it.

[00:14:21]Do not take a loan in your first job.

[00:14:26]Use your might the same way you used your might for the first for the past 5 years and get the same might when it comes to using your own money.

[00:14:37]Do not take alone go the next step. Do you need that whatever you are buying with that money?

[00:14:48]Any money you borrow that is not productive, it becomes a liability to you. You only borrow when the money is being used for productive uses, not for consumption.

[00:15:01]And these things we call investments.

[00:15:03]Who told us that only a piece of land is an investment? Yes, our father and our grandfathers. Did your grandfather come to the University of Nairobi?

[00:15:14]Which year did he graduate?

[00:15:17]Isn't it you now who have come to Nairobi who should be advising our parents back at home? I think it's you who should be advising them that the asset classes of investments changed and that is my third and last point.

[00:15:33]As you move out of the University of Nairobi that point the point I talked about was about loan but he touched about investments which is my third point.

[00:15:44]Take some time to learn about various investment options. There are not active. Active is the one you'll do the other things I talked about. I'm talking about passive.

[00:15:57]What do we know about where you can put in your money? There are many things we know about plots of lad. We know about buying government boats and bills.

[00:16:07]We know about fixing money in the bank.

[00:16:09]Learn about all the others. Learn about shares. Learn about Nairobi Securities Exchange. Learn about the opportunities there. Learn about how to buy them, the processes.

[00:16:22]Learn about how to evaluate them. Right now with your phone, AI has simplified everything. Even if I just want to know the companies listed in the NSC, I'll see them. Compare them with the one listed in in America, I'll see them.

[00:16:36]Compare them with the ones listed in the Johannesburg Stock Market, I'll see them.

[00:16:41]By the time you start touching your money, have the use for that money in terms of investments.

[00:16:50]And I can tell you this, I left KU.

[00:16:56]That's where I did my undergrad.

[00:16:59]I have worked. I have businesses, active businesses.

[00:17:06]But I can confess to you as my brothers and sisters, I have made more money passively than actively.

[00:17:14]I have made more money by investing than by working for it.

[00:17:21]I have I'm repeating I have made more money through investing than through an aggravate than through getting a job than through internship than through all that combined. now in the vet scenario.

[00:17:38]So it tells us let us not be ignorant about the options that are there because you benefit individually the things I'm talking about here I'm not talking to the group when you get a salary it will not come here to the dinner it will come to your pocket the loan you are going to take it is you to sign and pay for the next 10 years for a loan you never needed and then you end up than overpaying because you'll pay whatever you are buying together with interest rate.

[00:18:13]Do some analysis about investing and I lean more about stock markets myself because I have seen what it can do.

[00:18:22]Evaluate the companies listed in whichever sectors and see the opportunities that you can reap from there. The very lastly before the PS comes, this is for all of us as Kenyans is not now for knowing you more.

[00:19:01]Can I buy? How can I become a PS? How can I become a CEO of SRC?

[00:19:07]Because I think that is the real mentorship.

[00:19:20]I just want to request this one thing and I'll not talk about the economic issues.

[00:19:26]I'll talk about something that can end up affecting our economy itself in a gross manner.

[00:19:34]As a country, we did an experiment in he took our Kenyans there. By the time they came, it was low key. It was now not announced as much as it was announced when they were going because it was a total failure. It was an experiment which we had not thought about very well as a country. So we ended up exposing the lives of the Kenyan people and they came back without achieving much because we actually as a country never knew why we were sending them there.

[00:20:15]I'm requesting the government to stop experimentations and especially when it comes to the lives of the Kenyan people.

[00:20:24]The US is a developed economy just like all the other developed economies.

[00:20:30]They have a bigger muscle financially.

[00:20:33]They have better R&D in terms of healthcare than us.

[00:20:38]It is very imprudent for the government to expose Kenyans to a borrower in the name of money. We can't allow that as a country.

[00:20:52]US the US GDP is over 30 trillion US 30 trillion US. Our economy back here at home is 20 trillion Kenya ceilings.

[00:21:09]Kenya shillings. So the US is many many more times than our GDP. And we are here accepting money 1 billion shillings to expose Kenyans to a bora. The government must be careful and must retrospect and must backtrack because we must not accept that kind of experimentation.

[00:21:32]It will be too costly for our economy.

[00:21:34]It will be too costly for our lives. It will be too costly for Kenya.

[00:21:45]other than participation University of Nairobi vets all these kind of things they emanate from animals including Ebola. So I am here doing public participation.

[00:22:21]participation by the cream of Kenya. Let us stop these exper experiments. Let us focus on the things that matter. Let us focus on protecting the lives of the Kenyan people. Asantisana, may God bless you.

[00:22:36]Congratulations.