Mwash Cyber

When I lived in Kasarani, something used to bother me every exam season.

 KCPE and KCSE mornings always carried that charged atmosphere — buses groaning awake before sunrise, students switching between panic and bravado, teachers pretending they had everything under control. But in the middle of all that chaos, my attention kept catching on one thing. One tiny, almost ridiculous detail… 

yet somehow the most irritating of all.

A beautifully branded school bus…
a proud school name in bold letters…
and right next to it — an @gmail.com or @yahoo.com email address.

Every time, my soul winced like it had stepped on a piece of LEGO.

So tell me — how do you go through the trouble of branding your bus like a respectable institution, only to finish it off with a free email that looks like someone’s side account for Netflix trials? From a branding perspective, it’s painfully unprofessional. From any perspective that understands the value of image, it’s just baffling.

What’s the point of a school name if not to build a brand?
 A name parents can lean on. A name you expect to generate trust, reputation, and yes — revenue. Yet the same brand gets watered down by an email address that quietly whispers, “We didn’t bother to finish the job.”

As a web designer, I’m not even pretending — I feel embarrassed on their behalf. Some of these schools have websites. Nice ones. Thoughtfully built. And then on the contact page, sitting there like a cracked shoe at a wedding, is:
 [email protected]

Why? Seriously… why?

It’s not hatred. I’m not out here resenting anyone. If anything, I respect the hustle it takes to run a school. But I also can’t ignore the fact that even a small branding slip can undo an entire visual effort. Because the truth is simple: branding is built on details — tiny ones with enormous consequences.

People judge fast. Quicker than you think.
 And they judge everything.

A domain email isn’t a luxury. It’s a signal — a quiet, steady reminder that you take your identity seriously. It says, We’re intentional. We pay attention. We respect the image we present.

A generic free email says something else entirely:
 We’ll cut corners where it’s easy.

And here’s the thing: people are always watching. And they’re always reading between the lines.

Branding isn’t a logo.
 It isn’t colors.
 It isn’t the glossy decal on a school bus.

Branding is every little detail that either strengthens the story you’re telling — or exposes the parts you forgot to think about.

So if a school wants to be taken seriously, wants to inspire confidence, wants to stand tall in an increasingly competitive education landscape, then it needs to stop sabotaging itself with something as avoidable as a generic email address.

A school’s brand deserves more care.
 More respect.
 More intentionality.

And honestly — so do the students depending on it.

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