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BY GISHINGA NJOROGE
KENYA: After, hardly 10 short years, there are footballers who may now try to state in a conversation that they once played for the national team Harambee Stars only to be told to “go tell it to the birds!”
The country’s memory seems to be that short. That is if Hadji Mwachoki and Kevin “Keegan” Ngugi, for instance, told anyone that they were the midfield mainstay during the 2007 Cecafa Challenge Cup in Dar es Salaam, no one would believe them.
Record keeping in Kenya football circles is poor. Worse still, is the taking for granted of those who take national sporting duty.
Adel Amrouche and the boys — Allan Wanga, Francis Kahata, Peter Opiyo, James Situma, David “Calabar” Owino, Aboud Omar, Edwin Lavatsa, et al — are the darlings of the moment for an entire nation after clinching the first Cecafa Challenge Cup title in 11 years and primarily because they have covered up an excruciating past.
That Challenge Cup victory on the 50th Independence Day has calmed Harambee Stars followers in a remarkable way. It was achieved by players who had gelled so well that they were pleasant to watch.
It was also in a tournament that had very good teams including recent Africa Cup of Nations champions Zambia, an Ethiopian team that had only failed in the last hurdle to qualify for the 2014 Fifa World Cup, the Challenge Cup defending champions Uganda and potent Tanzania Mainland and Sudan teams.
The happiest part was watching a supremely skilled Kenya team and its supporters going into each match confident that their team would win no matter what the opposition.
It is remarkable how only performance of the Harambee Stars mattered among wananchi who could not be swayed by the monstrously shambolic manner in which the local organisers ran the tournament and especially how they treated the visiting teams.
It was also mainly because of how sportingly the Harambee Stars carried themselves that many of the foreign teams buckled down to getting on with the tournament despite all the distraction. Zambia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda just wanted to carry on, match the Kenya team and if possible take the Challenge Cup trophy. In the end they congratulated Harambee Stars for a deserved victory.
For football heroes of today it must feel like basking in the sunshine despite the gloom in some quarters during the tournament and wet and chilly weather in the country ever since that joyous fortnight.
In fact it was as if precisely the same kind of weather ruled during the Kenyan football of the past decade, before that 2-0 victory in the Final over Sudan on Jamhuri Day.
Spirited but failed
Yet the nation had dutifully gone out and participated in those depressing years. Presumably, the teams did the best they could. But they were mainly a losing lot.
One squad sparkled briefly, and under Jacob “Ghost” Mulee, reached the Africa Cup of Nations Finals in Senegal in 2004. Also, in 2008/2009, under Francis Kimanzi, they made another spirited but failed attempt to qualify for another Cup of Nations Finals. Rising to 68th place in the Fifa World Rankings, their best ever, under Kimanzi things seemed to be looking up.
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But it was a slump ever since, the country holding an average 120th placing in the Fifa ranks, once as low as 134th — last year.
It is because of that record that the role of the footballers who represented the country in the past decade may perhaps be regarded with little appreciation.
You need to scan through the huge population of players, who answered the call to national duty since the 2004 team of “Ghost” Mulee, to realise what thankless job they did.
The service of most of them is so unhighlighted that quite a good number would find it hard to convince anyone that they were ever Kenya internationals.
One or two could have been left out in the laborious research that listed them but a short story on the about 120 players [maybe slightly more] or so, who turned out for Harambee Stars since 2004 could make some recognition amends.
Even for the current men of the Harambee Stars, they would find it hard to believe that after such a recent period, it is as if some of the players below, many still active in the domestic Kenyan Premier League, played for Harambee Stars in the ‘Stone Age’.
Only 20 players were in the Harambee Stars squad that won this year’s Challenge Cup. Would you wonder whatever happened or is happening to another whopping hundred?
Players with at least one cap for Harambee Stars in the past decade (dating back to after the 2004 Afcon):
Dennis Oliech
Robert Mambo
Emmanuel Ake
Mark Sirengo
Sammy Simiyu
Zablon Amanaka
John Baraza
Hilary Echessa
Francis Chinjili
Mike Baraza
Paul Oyuga
Kevin Ochieng’ Opondo
Simeon Mulama
Ibrahim Shikanda
Issa Kassim
Hadji Mwachoki
David Okelo
Vincent Okelo
Kevin “Keegan” Ngugi
Titus Mulama
Nicholas Muyoti
Mohammed Breik
Hassan Alway
McDonald Mariga
Mike Baraza
Maurice Sunguti
Edgar “Fighter” Ochieng’
George Owino
Duncan Ochieng’
Pascal Ochieng’
James Mulinge
John Njoroge
Abdulatif Omar
Joseph Shikokoti
Victor Mugubi Wanyama
Jamal Mohammed
Austin Makacha
Dennis Odhiambo
Taye Taiwo Atieno
Osborne Monday
Francis Ouma
Allan Wanga
Brian Mandela
Humphrey Ochieng’ Mieno
Jacktone Odhiambo
Patrick Oboya
Wilson Obungu
James Situma
Yusuf Juma
Arnold Origi
Thomas Wanyama
Collins Okoth
Lloyd Wahome
Joseph Nyagah
Bob Mugalia
Kevin Kimani
Francis Ochieng’
Geoffrey Kokoyo
Chester Okoyo
Stephen Ochola
Lawrence Owino
Stephen Waruru
Victor Ochieng’
Jockins Atudo
Abdalla Juma
Frederick Ojwang’
Anthony “Modo” Kimani
Peter Opiyo
Bernard Mang’oli
Anthony “Muki” Kimani
Levy Mwaka
Evans Amwoka
Kepha Aswani
Kevin Omondi
Frederick Jerim Onyango
Julius Owino
Joseph Njuguna
Lawrence Webo
Ramadhan Balala
Edwin Baraza Wafula
Joshua Oyoo
Christopher Wekesa
Abdallah Juma
David Ochieng’ Owino
David “Cheche” Ochieng’
Joshua Omolo
Patrick Osiako
Musa Mohammed
Ramadhan Salim
Boniface Otieno
Eric Masika
Martin Imbalambala
Ali Bhai
Joseph Mwangi
Dennis Mukaisi
Ayub Timbe
Christian Bwamy
Donald Mosoti
Paul Were
Crispin Olando
Zachary Onyango
Charles Okwemba
Moses Arita
Andrew Tololwa
Boniface Oluoch
Benedict Owuor
Wesley Kemboi
Martin Musalia
Clifton Miheso
Dennis Nzomo
Anthony “Teddy” Akumu
Paul Mungai Kiongera
Edwin Lavatsa
Enock Agwanda
Patillah Omoto
Wycliffe Kasaya
Francis Kahata
David King’atua
Daniel Gateri