Marked for Elvis Ronack
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Jun 2027
Mathare United make home a hard place to visit
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market14 Jun 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mathare United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market14 Jun 2027
Alex Warai has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mathare United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market14 Jun 2027
The fee is $72.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Shabana drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market14 Jun 2027
The fee is $73.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mara Sugar drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Edwin Mukolwe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Mathare United spend $73.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $73.0K for Lameck Omondi, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 May 2027
Mathare United make home a hard place to visit
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market31 May 2027
Dennis Mukoye has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mathare United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match29 May 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match29 May 2027
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mathare United can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mathare United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 May 2027
Whatever happens, Mathare United do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Mathare United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elli Asieche is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad31 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 May 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mathare United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match1 May 2027
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Mathare United are no longer polite ones.
Match1 May 2027
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market3 May 2027
Dennis Mukoye has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mathare United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 May 2027
Edwin Mukolwe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Brian Ndenga
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Marked 7.90 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Mathare United had the best player on the pitch.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Mathare United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Douglas Mokaya is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market5 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mathare United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Herit Atariza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match3 Apr 2027
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market5 Apr 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Herit Atariza has his answer from Mathare United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Elli Asieche falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brian Ndenga, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Elvis Ronack named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Elvis Ronack is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market8 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mathare United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match6 Mar 2027
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Solly Khunyedi and Mathare United agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mathare United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kefa Nakhumicha has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Mathare United have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Mathare United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Herit Atariza is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Mathare United did not have in the autumn.
Market8 Feb 2027
Elvis Ronack hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mathare United can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
8 academy players handed senior numbers at Mathare United
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Senzelumusa Sibiya was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market8 Feb 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martin Mulee is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Feb 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ochieng Mwendwa has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market8 Feb 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joseph Chemelil has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 1‑0 win over Nairobi United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
Robert Mboya hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mathare United can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mathare United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elvis Ronack, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.02. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad31 Aug 2026
When it matters, Musa Masika plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.