What if the real problem with retirement is not this phase of life – but the language we use to define it? The word retirement comes from the French retirer, meaning “to withdraw into seclusion.” Embedded in the term is the assumption that ageing requires retreat. In a world where people in their sixties and seventies remain capable, curious, and engaged, it may be time to retire the word retirement before it retires us.
In Kenya, retirement is commonly seen as an ending. It signals withdrawal from active life, loss of relevance, and a gradual fading into the background and growing old. The phrase “umefika mwisho wa kazi” captures this sentiment clearly: your working life is over. Yet this framing no longer matches the reality of modern later life – as many people continue to “work” in other spheres of life long after they have left the workplace.
Many Kenyans in their 60s and 70s today are healthier, sharper, and more engaged than previous generations. They are running farms and businesses, mentoring younger professionals, consulting, serving on boards, leading faith and community organisations, and caring for extended families. They are not stepping away from life; they are simply stepping away from formal employment. The problem is that the English language has not caught up.
There is no doubt that words can shape expectations. When retirement is framed as a final chapter, many people unconsciously step back from ambition, learning, and contribution. In Kenya because of perceptions – retirement can carry a quiet shame – a sense that one has reached the “end.” Titles fall away, daily routines dissolve, and identity becomes unsettled.
This is not because older people lack capacity or relevance, but because society subtly signals – through how retirement is imagined and spoken about – that their most meaningful years are behind them. What often follows is a loss of confidence and a growing feeling of being unneeded and unnecessary.
Around the world, countries are rethinking retirement. New language is emerging: “second acts,” “encore careers,” “portfolio lives,” “next chapters.” These ideas recognise that contribution does not end when a payslip stops or a career or employment ends. Purpose, relevance, and productivity evolve. Kenya needs a similar shift especially in how we speak about later life.
I suggest that we need is a new word altogether – one that signals transition, not termination. But until such a word emerges, we can begin by challenging the old definition of retirement. Retiring the word itself allows us to think about this phase of life more honestly, and more constructively.
Clearly, life after the workplace is not an ending – it is a realignment – a chance to pause, recalibrate, and reinvent who we are beyond our job titles. Yet the word retirement continues to frame this transition as withdrawal, decline, and finality.
This is precisely why it’s time to retire retirement. As long as we treat this stage of life as an ending, we limit imagination, ambition, and contribution. When we reframe it as a beginning, it becomes an open chapter – one defined not by what has been left behind, but by new purpose, possibility, and the freedom to live with intention.