Murugi Munyi on Podcasting in Kenya: “It’s Not a Quick Path to Money”

Podcasting in Kenya is still an emerging space—and not one where creators can expect to make easy money. According to content creator Murugi Munyi, who co-hosts The Messy In Between alongside Lydia K, the journey has been fulfilling but far from financially rewarding.

Despite being consistently ranked among Kenya’s top 10 most-listened-to podcasts on Spotify over the past three years, Munyi says the podcast hasn’t generated significant income.

“The podcast journey has been amazing,” she shared. “The space is really interesting because it’s still a relatively new niche here. I think there’s potential for monetization, but the opportunities are few and far between. It takes a lot of time, effort, and financial investment before you can see real returns.”

For Munyi and Lydia, the focus isn’t just on the bottom line—they’re committed to building a strong product first.

“We’ve hosted a few live podcast events, and they’re expensive to organize. From our first event, we only made a profit of around Sh10,000, but at least it showed there was some margin.”

While podcasting may not be paying off yet, Murugi’s broader content creation career certainly is. In 2023, she revealed she earned a total of Sh10 million, which averages about Sh833,333 per month—if she were to split it like a regular salary.

After leaving her 9-to-5 job five years ago to pursue content creation full time, Munyi admits that the income can be lucrative, but it’s rarely consistent.

“Just because you’re a content creator doesn’t mean you’re earning every single month. There are dry seasons—times when brands are not spending or budgets haven’t been released yet,” she explained.

She described her income as cyclical:

“You might make Sh200,000 one month, then hit a dry spell the next. After that, you could land a deal worth Sh1.3 million, then maybe Sh400,000 the following month. It’s unpredictable.”

Despite the ups and downs, Murugi remains committed to her craft—building platforms, pushing boundaries, and redefining what it means to be a content creator in Kenya’s evolving digital space.