06/06/2026
John C. Maxwell’s Law of the Lid states that: an individual or system can never rise beyond the level of its leadership capacity. When the lid is low, progress is limited. When it is raised, everything beneath it rises with it.
I did not think of that theory in a leadership seminar.
I thought of it during a controversy in the Meru music industry.
On the 4th, during the Meru Youth Service pass-out event, a figure circulated among artists: KSh 3,000 allegedly allocated as payment for creatives.
That single figure triggered a familiar reaction.
Outrage. Debate. Accusations. Clarifications.
And once again, the Meru music industry found itself in a cycle it knows too well.
Artists reacted sharply, describing the amount as disrespectful and exploitative. Questions followed immediately: who approved it, who represents artists, and who speaks for creatives in such arrangements?
MC Laing’o stepped in to clarify that the amount was intended for appearances, not full performances.But by then, the issue had already shifted away from arithmetic.
It was no longer about 3,000 shillings.
It was about structure, trust, and representation in an industry that repeatedly finds itself negotiating value without a unified voice.
The conversation exposed something deeper: the absence of a stable framework that outlives individual events, personalities, and disagreements.
THE SACCO IDEA THAT REVEALS THE GAP
For years, MC Laing’o has been associated with attempts to organize creatives beyond individual survival. His most notable proposal, the Meru Wasanii SACCO, was designed to address a structural weakness that surfaces every time conflict arises: the lack of collective bargaining power among artists.
The logic was straightforward. Other sectors have long understood it. Teachers have SACCOs. Farmers have SACCOs. Organized groups negotiate from strength, not emotion.
The idea was not symbolic. It was economic.
Yet, like many institutional attempts in creative industries, the proposal encountered resistance, fragmentation, and inconsistent engagement from stakeholders...momentum weakened over time.
But the need it was meant to address did not disappear.
It resurfaced again during the MYS controversy.
THE COUNTER-VOICE: UNITY AS ECONOMIC SURVIVAL
Within the same debate, another perspective emerged from within the artistic community itself...less emotional, more structural.
The argument is blunt: constant public complaints do not build an industry. They weaken it.
The position is that the real failure is not external systems alone, but internal fragmentation. Artists operate individually, yet expect collective outcomes. Opportunities are pursued separately, yet demanded as shared entitlement.
The conclusion is uncompromising: talent without unity remains economically weak.
The message calls for a shift from reaction to organization, from complaint to structure, and from individual survival to collective bargaining.
In this view, the problem is not lack of opportunity.
It is lack of coordination.
KAMANU AND THE CULTURAL LAYER
KamaNu represents another layer of the industry’s evolution.
Through Twine Cietu, he anchored his work in culture, identity, and musical documentation of Meru heritage. The early philosophy was clear: prioritize culture, avoid unnecessary political entanglement, and build artistic identity from within.
But cultural movements do not exist in isolation.
As influence grows, so does exposure to systems of power, numbers, and negotiation. Over time, even culture-centered platforms are drawn into the broader dynamics they once sought to avoid.
What begins as preservation eventually encounters influence.What begins as identity eventually encounters power.
THE CORE ISSUE: MISALIGNED LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING
The Meru music industry is not suffering from a lack of ideas, talent, or ambition.
It is suffering from misalignment.
Different actors operate from different levels of understanding:
Artists operate from immediate survival and fair compensation.
Organizers operate from logistics and event-based ex*****on.
Visionaries operate from institutional design and long-term structure.
Cultural builders operate from identity and preservation.
Reform voices operate from economic unity and collective bargaining principles.
Each perspective is valid within its own context...But they are not synchronized.
And when systems operate at different conceptual levels, conflict becomes constant, even when intentions align.
THE LID PROBLEM IS NOT INDIVIDUAL, IT IS STRUCTURAL
The Law of the Lid is often interpreted as an individual limitation. But in this context, it reveals something broader.
The industry itself operates with multiple overlapping lids:
A financial lid that limits fair valuation of creative work
A structural lid that limits collective organization
A leadership lid that relies on individuals rather than institutions
A generational lid where understanding arrives at different times
The result is predictable.
Every crisis feels new. Every debate feels urgent. Every generation believes it is the first to encounter the problem.Yet the pattern remains unchanged.
CONCLUSION:
The Meru music industry is not defined by lack of talent.It is defined by repetition.
Repetition of debates.
Repetition of frustrations.
Repetition of unresolved structural questions.
The events surrounding the MYS pass-out controversy did not create these issues. They only exposed them again.
Because beneath every public disagreement lies a deeper structural reality:
Different stakeholders are not simply disagreeing.
They are operating from different heights of understanding, trying to solve the same industry from incompatible positions.
Until those levels are aligned, the industry will continue to experience the same cycle under different headlines.
Different names.
Same fire.
Same questions.
And perhaps the most difficult truth is this:
The problem is not that the Meru music industry does not see its challenges...It is that it does not see them from the same level, at the same time, with the same framework for action.
