Is it a coincidence that next to every stadium in Nairobi, there is a village of hungry-looking marabou storks? These ugly birds have a long history with Kenyan soccer. They have actually become part and parcel of popular jokes around our football matches.
Fans of Ingwe and K’Ogalo have a long love-hate relationship with these creatures. They do not realise that the football matches at both City and Nyayo stadiums actually intrude on the birds' natural habitat.
The real drama between man and bird started way back in 1975 during a Mashemeji Derby. As the match was going on, a marabou stork appeared from the blues, hovering around the playing field.
It flew so low that it immediately drew the attention of both players and fans. Some players tried to shoo it away without success.
The bird landed on one side of the field. Fans looked in disbelief when it sauntered across the pitch towards the AFC Leopards goal. Their goalkeeper Jairus Adams tried to scare away the bird without success.
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All the attention was on the goalie and the strange-looking bird. Gor Mahia fans were laughing and shouting at him to stop harassing the innocent creature. Some Ingwe players ran towards their goal to help chase the bird away.
To Ingwe fans, this was a bad omen and they blamed it on Gor Mahia’s Juju men. To Gor fans, it was a good omen because at the time, they were leading 1 – 0.
Anybody who has seen a marabou stork at close range may confess that the bird looks very ugly and scaring.
Coming across one that does not run away even after being chased by many people can be confusing. The referee also tried to scare it away to no avail. It just was stubborn. To Ingwe players and fans, the bird was wasting crucial playing time.
Anyway, it eventually hurried off the pitch before flying away. Gor fans clapped loudly as it soared away. You can imagine how the Ingwe fans felt when the game ended at 1 – 0 in favour of their bitter rivals Gor Mahia.
The bird probably flew off the thorny trees that line up the road between Kaloleni estate and City Stadium. Like Nyayo Stadium, marabou storks build their nests on the umbrella-shaped thorn trees that line up Uhuru Highway.
With time, they become so used to human presence that they do not run away even at the slightest provocation.
Those days strange things apparently used to happen at City Stadium. Once in 1979, during a match between Kenya and Malawi at the same venue, fans saw custodian Mahmoud Abbas running after some animal.
I recall people used to carry small radios to the stadium to listen and watch the game simultaneously. At first, they didn’t quite know what it was until Leonard Mambo Mbotela started screaming: “Abbas na burukenge, burukenge na Abbas, wasikilizaji ametokea burukenge uwanjani!” Others thought ‘burukenge’ was a player’s name, maybe Malawian!
There was a monitor lizard that came from nowhere and was running towards the goal area where Abbas was. Before many could see it, goalkeeper Abbas tried to stop it from the goal area. He gave way after realising it was stubborn. Players took off, mistaking it for a huge snake!
Over the radio, Mambo was ecstatic and thrilled about the whole drama. He kept on shouting, “Jameni, burukenge katokea wapi uwanjani? Maajabu ya ulimwengu haya!”
The animal ran towards one side of the pitch, scaring the fans who were standing in that corner before it disappeared into a hole near the perimeter wall. There was laughter and a sigh of relief in the whole stadium before the referee blew the whistle for the match to proceed.
The official explanation later was that with the tall grass around City Stadium, it was possible for snakes and monitor lizards to live around the facility.
To the superstitious, the marabou stork and the ‘burukenge’ incident were cases of Juju gone wrong. Some fans believed that maybe a medicine man had lost control of his ‘tools of trade’ and let them loose on the pitch.
As usual, fans of both Ingwe and K’Ogalo interpreted the strange coincidences, depending on who won or lost the game. Since Gor won the match 1 – 0, Ingwe fans alleged their Juju man sent the marabou stork to bless the match to favour them.
In the Kenya vs Malawi match, fans believed we lost 2 - 1 because of the ‘burukenge’ which must have been brought by the Malawians.
From that day, fans going to Nyayo Stadium are normally very hostile to the marabou storks around the stadium.
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