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Kenya team roll of honour

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.

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