Kenya Morans feat breathes life into Kenyan basketball

Kenya Morans’ second-place finish at the inaugural FIBA AfroCan tournament stands out as the highlight of 2019 season for it put smiles on basketball enthusiasts in the country.  

It is also a year that the men’s national team made historic victories against highly-fancied North teams like Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco as well as Africa’s top nation Nigeria.

Veteran player and former Kenya team captain Ancet Wafula said that featuring in the final of the continental championship was no mean feat.

“It was a huge achievement for Kenyans and a performance we should build on going forward,” Wafula, who currently plays for premier league side Thunder, said.

Wafula, who captained the national team for more than a decade, said they need to put in more effort to maintain the good shows.

Kenya Morans shocked Africa when they shook off the underdogs tag and stormed into the final, where they claimed silver in Bamako, Mali, in July.

They bounced back from a disappointing 65-82 loss to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in their event opener to beat Nigeria (81-69), Ivory Coast (85-83), Tunisia (82-76) and Morocco 96-66 in the semis. They lost to DRC in the finals.

“It was a defining moment in the history of Kenyan basketball; players put their differences as well as grievances aside. They changed their mindsets and summoned passion and patriotism.”

In June, Kenya won the FIBA Zone five championship held in Kampala, Uganda. In Bamako, Kenyans staged a brilliant show with the duo of internationals in Tyler Okari and Tom “Bush” Wamukota making it to the list of AfroCan All-Stars five. Ulinzi Warriors guard Eric Mutoro, KPA’s Ariel Okall and skipper Griffin Ligare helped Kenya to bag the silver medal.

Earlier on, Morans had won the FIBA Zone Five championships trophy in Kampala, Uganda. Kenya’s victory also came with a historic 97-79 win over Egypt’s Pharaohs. Okari was named the Zone Five Most Valuable Player. His star continued shining as he emerged AfroCan top scorer.

Kenya women’s team also qualified for the FIBA women’s Afrobasket but lack of support from the government saw the team fail to impress in Bamako, Mali. Kenya lost their group matches 39-55 and 57-64 to Mozambique and Cape Verde respectively. They later lost 51-64 to Angola in the play off to finish 11th in the 12-team contest.

At club level, it was a bad year for Kenyan girls as Equity Bank Hawks failed to defend the FIBA Zone Five title. Former champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) fell 58-63 to debutants JKL Dolphine of Uganda to settle for second place while Kenya came fourth.

Despite qualifying for the FIBA Africa Women Championship Cup held in Egypt mid this month, KPA pulled out of the tourney over financial constraints.

The same fate befell their male counterparts. Left on their own by the management of KPA, the men funded for the road trip to Kigali, Rwanda for the Basketball Africa League (BAL) qualifiers. They arrived late and were slapped with a walkover against Uganda’s City Oilers.

The walkover proved costly locking them out of the semis despite winning their two Group B matches against Cobra of South Sudan and Ferroviario De Maputo of Mozambique.

They finished third tied on five points with Ferroviario and City Oilers. “It is unfortunate that this happened to KPA because it means that Kenyan clubs will have to wait for a year to play international basketball.

The players went on to fund themselves which means that had the management communicated on time they would have made it to the competition on time,” said Wafula.

She said all was not well locally and a lot is required to maintain the performance. “We need structures for smooth transition, age group basketball is key to ensuring that we nurture talent. It is impossible to develop talent and even keep track of the players that are churned out of schools yearly.”

Ulinzi Warriors reclaimed the men’s basketball premier league title following their 3-1 win over Thunder while Equity Hawks retained the women’s crown with a 3-2 victory over KPA.

Ulinzi’s Victor Bosire and Equity’s Annerose Mandela were MVP’s in in the league while Mutoro and Hilda Indasi bagged the top scorer’s awards.