Why Agina should disappear kabisa!

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

American heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, arguably the most stylish and greatest boxer of all time, once said: “Champions are not made in gyms. Champions are made from something deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.”

He was right.

However, sometimes that desire, dream or vision, might not be easy to achieve in your country. So, most boxers choose the wayward route — escape.

Recently, Kenyan boxer Brian Agina disappeared after the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, where eight Cameroon athletes including five boxers and three weight lifters also failed to show up for their respective competitions.

The British Council’s Next Generation Kenya Report revealed that a majority of young Kenyans, despite patriotic juices flowing through their veins, desire to emigrate in search of greener pastures.

Agina went missing as Kenya’s boxing squad prepared to fly back home after the end of the two-week games when he borrowed $100 (Sh10,000) from colleague Benson Gicharu. Boxing Association of Kenya President John Kameta was left holding the boxer’s passport. Agina had lost in the preliminaries of the 52-kilogramme category to Pakistan’s Syed Muhammad Asif at the Oxenford Studios.

Of the 11 Kenyan boxers, only one — Christine Ongare — made it to the medals bracket, winning a bronze medal.

It was not the first time a Kenyan pugilist has gone missing at the conclusion of a major competition.

During the 2000 Sydney Olympics in Australia, middleweight boxer Peter Kariuki, then 23; and light welterweight boxer Fred Munga Kinuthia, disappeared at the airport.

The two — and eight other African boxers — were sought by police and immigration officials to no avail.

Just why do boxers, more often than athletes, rugby players and footballers, disappear when representing Kenya? And do they fare better?

For one, boxing is a ‘hunger sport’ and a majority of local boxers are from crime-prone Eastlands, where boxing comes in handy for self-defence when one is not serving as a bouncer in a reggae joint.

The best Kenyan boxers emerged either from Nakuru’s Madison Square Garden or the humid social halls of Eastlands: Dallas in Muthurwa, Undugu in Eastleigh, Thailand in Githurai, Ukumbusho in Majengo,  Kaloleni, Mathare North and the late Eddy Papa Musi’s in Kariobangi North.

These boxing halls churned out some of the finest homespun pugilists. Dallas gave us the late Robert Wangila, who became the first African   gold medalist during the 1988 Seoul Olympics after subduing Frenchman Laurent Boudani, before turning pro and dying in America after fighting against David Gonzales at the Aladdin Hotel in 1994.

Undugu Boxing Club produced, among others; David Olulu, “Diblo” Okinyi, Nick Okoth, the late Steve Moi, “Bulinga” Otieno, Joseph “Mish” Miyumo and Athanus Nzau besides Chris Sande and Valdez Ochieng, both champions at the Kings Cup in Bangkok Thailand (now known as Thailand International Invitational boxing tournament) before going pro in Denmark and America respectively.  

Then there was the golden generation that took part in the 4th All Africa Games, Nairobi, in 1987. Of Kenya’s 12 boxers, eight won gold: David ‘DK’ Kamau (lightwelter), Stephen Mwema (bantam), Patrick ‘Mont’ Waweru (feather),  John Wanjau (lightweight), Maurice Maina (light flyweight), Mohammed ‘Body’ Orungi (middleweight), Robert Wangila (welterweight) and Chris Odera (superheavyweight).

The list of our finest cannot be complete without Steve Muchoki, the only Kenyan  boxer ever to win a world title and Philip ‘Nakayama’ Waruingi, the only Kenyan boxer to take part in three consecutive Olympic Games —1964, 1968 and the 1972 Munich Olympics in which he won silver.

Together with South Africa’s George Hunter, Waruinge is one of the only two African recipients of the Val Barker Trophy awarded for outstanding “pound for pound” performance and style in boxing at the Olympics.

Back then, there were boxing structures and programmes, coaches and technical expertise, traditions and role models which reinforced training regimens. Participating in the Nairobi Provisional Amateur Boxing Association league (now Nairobi County Boxing Association) meant a boxer could be poached and get employed by the Kenya Police, Kenya Prisons, the GSU, Kenya Posta,  the Kenya Army or the then City Council of Nairobi’s Boxing Club.     

There were boxing promoters like Caleb Kuya’s Osaga Promotions and Time Bomb Promotions fronted by Atomic Bunde in the paid ranks, buttressing boxing structures in the palmy days of the Hit Squad, the national boxing team. But lack of incentives and support from the Ministry of Sports, coupled with financial challenges dealt a slow knock out to the sport. At one point, some boxers from Undugu Boxing Club walked from Dandora for training in Eastleigh, over 20 kilometres away and when time for bouts outside Nairobi came, bus fare would see them miss out. Without money from Dandora meant the boxer had no money for proper lunch.

Then came systemic problems. Like lack of training kits and equipment that saw boxers sharing gum shields, exposing most to diseases. Using threadbare gloves meant pounding each other to the bone and the attendant risk of brain concussions. Middleweight boxers got featherweights as spurring partners, not to mention lack of medical insurance when surgeries are needed.

Why would a boxer return to Kenya where the sport is a ticket to penury?   Consider Peter Kariuki. By 2003, he had become Australia’s lightweight champion, before moving to New Zealand for four years, in between stints in Fiji and China, before relocating to Blacktown, 35 kilometres from Sydney.

By 2011, Kariuki was Australia’s super middleweight champion and a finalist in The Contender, an Australian boxing TV reality show whose reruns were aired by DStv in Kenya. He had entered after being ranked first in the Australian Boxing Federation in his category and the show carried a $100,000 (Sh8 million) cash prize, a Holden SV6 Ute car and a foreign trip.

Kariuki lost to Garth Wood in a split decision. Kariuki was then one of the top 10 boxers in Australia and had he won, the then father of two, who was ranked third by the World Boxing Organisation (WBO), would have fought in a $250,000 (Sh20 million) bout against Australia’s Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine, then the International Boxing Organisation (IBO) champion.

All these could not have been possible had Kariuki returned to Kenya after the 2000 Sidney Olympics. Boxers like Brian Agina follow suit and it’s easy for most. Sportsmen and women have four-month visas and can extend their stay. In Kariuki’s case, he used his visa to engage lawyers to grant him residency under the rarely used “distinguished talent” provisions that cover the arts, science and sport. This is what Agina could be hoping to emulate, even without a passport.