Earning Global Income Safely: Grace Mureithi Breaks Down Kenya’s Gig Economy

Your next employer may not have an office in Nairobi, Kisumu or Mombasa.

They could be sitting in London, running a startup in New York or managing a business thousands of kilometres away – while the person doing the work is sitting at home in Kenya.

That is increasingly how the gig economy works.

A 2025 World Economic Forum report estimated that Kenya had about 1.9 million people engaged in digital jobs, including 1.2 million gig workers.

The country’s growing digital workforce spans freelancing, business process outsourcing and other digitally delivered services.

But the opportunity comes with another reality: finding work online is one thing; finding safe, sustainable work is another.

That was the focus of the latest Co-op Bank Youth Forum, where host Noah Kipkemboi was joined by Grace Mureithi, Director of Customer Success at DreamStart Labs, for a conversation on “The Gig Economy: Earning Global Income Safely” on Friday, September 25.

Why Grace Mureithi was in the conversation

Mureithi’s perspective comes from a career spanning customer success, project management and operations.

At DreamStart Labs, she leads customer success, global product adoption and partner engagement across the company’s digital products.

DreamStart Labs itself operates across Africa, Asia and Latin America, building digital tools for savings groups and working with organisations involved in financial inclusion.

Its current platform reaches tens of thousands of groups across dozens of countries, giving Mureithi a front-row view of how people and organisations use technology across borders.

She has also spent years working around technology, systems and digital products, including publishing on business applications as early as 2016.

That mix made the conversation less about chasing quick money online and more about understanding how to operate professionally in a global digital marketplace.

Don’t sell the software. Sell the value

One of Mureithi’s central messages was that simply knowing how to use a piece of software is not necessarily a marketable skill.

A freelancer may know Adobe, Microsoft Office or another digital tool.

The question for a potential client is what that knowledge can actually help them accomplish.

Mureithi encouraged freelancers to package their skills around business problems and outcomes – from managing customer support and inboxes to supporting product launches, communication campaigns, bookkeeping and project management.

That distinction matters because global clients are not simply buying someone’s ability to operate a computer.

They are paying for a problem to be solved.

Your portfolio can speak before you do

For someone starting without a long list of clients, the absence of experience can feel like the first barrier.

Mureithi’s advice was to create a portfolio anyway.

Sample projects can demonstrate what a freelancer is capable of even before their first paying client.

She also encouraged beginners to concentrate on one or two trusted freelance platforms, rather than spreading themselves across multiple sites without first understanding how each works.

Her own experience reflects the reality of starting small.

She recalled facing repeated rejections before studying successful proposals, improving her profile and gradually refining how she presented herself.

The lesson is simple: rejection can provide information about what needs to change.

The global job scam hiding behind the “easy money”

The other half of earning global income is staying alert.

During the forum, Mureithi highlighted several warning signs:

Vague job descriptions, unusually high pay for simple tasks, pressure to make quick decisions and requests for money before work begins.

She also advised freelancers to have a signed contract before starting and, especially when dealing with a new client, to keep communication and payments on the platform where the job originated until trust and the platform’s protections are understood.

That caution is increasingly relevant as online work expands.

The ILO notes that digital labour platforms are creating new sources of work and income while also presenting challenges around working conditions and worker protections.

In June 2026, the organisation adopted its first international labour standard specifically addressing the platform economy.

From the first client to a real career

Getting the first gig is only the beginning.

Mureithi told participants that long-term growth depends on the quality of work delivered, documenting that work and building positive reviews.

A strong first assignment can therefore become more than a payday: it can become evidence that helps secure the next client.

That is perhaps the more useful way to look at the gig economy.

The laptop and internet connection may get you to the marketplace. But the career is built through skills, proof, professionalism, trust and the ability to deliver consistently.

And that was the practical message at the heart of this week’s Co-op Bank Youth Forum:

Global income is no longer necessarily tied to leaving Kenya – but participating safely requires treating online work like a real profession, not an internet shortcut.