Marked for Yafeesi Mubiru
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at KCB
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hlompho Dala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at KCB
Nashon Alembi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 112% of the KCB income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Nashon Alembi
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Hlompho Dala gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hlompho Dala is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at KCB
Hlompho Dala 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at KCB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clyde Senaji 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nicholas Kipkirui has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KCB will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at KCB
Yafeesi Mubiru and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Clyde Senaji 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Humphrey Mieno has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KCB will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dennis Kweyu named player of the week
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Dennis Kweyu has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Fortune Omoto
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and KCB will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KCB can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hlompho Dala in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KCB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Yafeesi Mubiru knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KCB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes Elvis Ochoro a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KCB. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Francis Kahiro’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Home comforts ahead for KCB
Mathare United, position 3, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
KCB march on in the cup
Kenya Police are out and KCB go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match26 Aug 2026
Fortune Omoto wins it after the whistle should have gone
124 minutes played. Fortune Omoto found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Kenya Police went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Connor Jales, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market31 Aug 2026
KCB say no — this time
The offer from FC Diarra for Elvis Ochoro was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for KCB, 1‑0 the final word against Sofapaka in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Fortune Omoto at his very best
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KCB.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Nicholas Kipkirui at his very best
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KCB.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at KCB
Yafeesi Mubiru and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 2026
Cup progress for KCB
A 0‑0 win over Posta Rangers, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match19 Aug 2026
KCB march on in the cup
Posta Rangers are out and KCB go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.69, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
KCB say no — this time
The offer from Gor Mahia for Francis Kahiro was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nicholas Kipkirui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KCB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Eric Olunga after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
APS Bomet come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and KCB did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match15 Aug 2026
KCB cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Yafeesi Mubiru pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at KCB
Yafeesi Mubiru 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Eric Olunga to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Maritzburg United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Clyde Senaji 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KCB can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim Miheso 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amos 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Dennis Odhiambo joins the KCB first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dennis Odhiambo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at KCB
Yafeesi Mubiru and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan move for Lebogang Jali is in the works
KCB have made the call to Platinum Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
7.16, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. KCB had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eric Olunga was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the KCB dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Apollo Otieno and KCB agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at KCB
Yafeesi Mubiru and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Kaizer Chiefs: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Half-satisfied: Eric Olunga on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Clyde Senaji 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
KCB and Apollo Otieno are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Clyde Senaji's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 5.00, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.