This week’s issueThe budget, explained in five minutes and one cup of tea
Every year the numbers arrive on a Thursday afternoon and nobody has time to read them. I read them for a living, and this is what changed for your pocket. The headline is a smaller deficit and a bigger bill for fuel. The detail is in the third annex, in a table I read twice and then asked two economists to check. This week I go through what moves, what stays and what the finance team did not say out loud, and I make the case that one line about school meals matters more than the whole speech. Plus: your messages about the new road tolls, a note on how a bulletin is written in eleven minutes, and the one number I still cannot explain.
ExplainedWhat the new matatu rules mean for your commute
Seat belts, route numbers and a fine that nobody has read. I rode three routes at six in the morning to find out what changes.
- The long read
Why the long rains came late, and who paid for it
A farmer in the Rift, a flower exporter near Naivasha and a weather forecaster who has been right about nine seasons in ten.
- Behind the desk
Behind the bulletin: eleven minutes from rumour to the air
A producer, two phones and a rule that nothing goes out until two sources say it. A morning inside a newsroom that never sits down.
InterviewA morning with the rider who delivers the news before the news does
He leaves at four, knows every kiosk by name and has a view on which headlines sell and which ones just shout.
- Mailbag
Your questions: how I prepare, how I stay calm and my worst live moment
You sent 180 questions. I answered nine, including the one about the autocue that stopped halfway through a sentence.
Next issue: Sunday 15 November
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