by Joe Kiarie

They fled to Kenya bemoaning shattered lives three years ago but they are now showcasing medals and records, all courtesy of fate.

It has been a torturous journey to stardom for refugee teenagers Patrick Kagogo and Bob Mugalia, the talented footballers who have helped Sofapaka FC win the Kenya Premier League (KPL) title in their debut season.

The soft-spoken duo separately fled their motherland, the Democratic Republic of Congo, following the break of civil war.

Kagogo, popularly known as ‘Petit’ (French for small) because of his diminutive stature, has particularly overcome haunting odds to revel in glory. He still does not know the fate of his parents and two siblings back home, and they don’t know his whereabouts.

The pacy winger still recalls the fateful day in 2006 when he trekked for kilometres before a truck driver came to his rescue by smuggling him to Kenya on the back of a cargo truck. His hometown, Goma, in eastern DRC, had been reduced to a killing field.

Patrick Kagogo during past matches. Photos: Robin Toskin/Standard

"When we reached Kenya, the driver dropped me at Mlolongo, Athi River, and a woman directed me to Maos Church in Ngara, where she said other Congolese refugees lived," recalls Kagogo, who was born in Katwa village, North Kivu.

He says he owes it all to the club owner Elly Kalekwa and the church for accepting him as a son.

"Life has been tough with the unknown fate of my family but prayers have kept me going," says the religious and ever-smiling Kagogo.

Mugalia’s case is no different. He used to play for DRC topside, OC Bukavu Dawa, while in Form Two at Espoir Secondary.

With a wave of tension brewing in his hometown, the Bukavu-born striker crossed the border to neighbouring Rwanda in 2006.

"The schools kept closing due to war and I had no option but find my way to Rwanda. There, some top players whom I did not know, said they had seen me play as a young striker in Bukavu, invited me to play for Rayon Sport (Rwandese top side) and I moved in," he recalls.

Then only 15, Mugalia stayed at Rayon for seven months before rejoining OC when tension eased back home. He then briefly joined Goma-based premier league side, DC Virunga, before the worst happened.

"Suddenly, people began slaying each other as war intensified. Like many other colleagues, I pleaded with a truck driver to take me out of DRC and he dropped me in Kenya, along Mombasa Road," Mugalia recounts.

He was rescued by a businesswoman who alerted a Congolese pastor in Nairobi. Mugalia ended up in the Maos Church where he met Kagogo.

For nearly three years, Mugalia did not know what befell his parents and nine siblings until a friend informed him they were alive mid this year.

"I have talked to them over the phone and I plan to travel back home in December to see them. It feels so nice to know they are well. I can’t wait to see them," he says.

Mugalia says he was surprised to meet Kagogo, whom he had played against in the DRC premier league. The two have since become the best of friends on and off the pitch.

Bob Mugalia

Today, the youngsters are the longest-serving Sofapaka players. They joined the club in 2007, when it was founded. They were instrumental in the club’s promotion to the premier league last year and the bagging of the coveted KPL title this season.

Kagogo got his name into Sofapaka’s records when he netted the side’s first-ever premier league goal in their 2-0 debut win over Ulinzi Stars in February this year. Mugalia scored the second goal.

And after scoring crucial winning goals over the season, the duo starred in Sofapaka’s 3-0 whipping of Red Berets to lift the premiership title last weekend.

Mugalia had, by last weekend, scored nine goals and made 10 assists while Kagogo had scored six goals and made 13 assists.

Kagogo, who has been treating fans to exciting dribbles and awesome flicks, could also, arguably, take honours for scoring the goal of the season.

Trailing Chemilil Sugar 1-0 at Kasarani, Sofapaka launched a swift counter-attack and the ball found Kagogo lurking at the left edge of the 18-yard area. He made no mistake in unleashing a volley, which powerfully curved across a hapless Chemelil goalkeeper Kenneth Onyach.

The execution was not only stunning but also helped Sofapaka win the match 2-1.

Kagogo attributes his achievements to God. He says when he left DRC he thought his promising football career had come to an end. He polished his football skills at the academies of top teams like Butebo Sports, Etoile du Congo and Burundi’s Vital O, and later played for two teams in the DRC premier league.

And Mugalia says he finds it hard to believe he won the KPL trophy, a feat he could only dream of three years ago.

"It feels so good and incredible, and I now feel very much at home in Kenya. Now I believe God takes one through troubled times on the way to glory," he says jovially.