Marked for Thomas Harun
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Mara Sugar
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market18 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mara Sugar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Alex Imbusia 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 Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Thomas Harun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bernard Ondiek and Mara Sugar agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Bernard Ondiek 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Bernard Ondiek
“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.
Match31 Jul 2027
AFC Leopards left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Mara Sugar pull $4.0K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
5.38 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Mara Sugar
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market28 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 Mara Sugar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad28 Jun 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 Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
At 22 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.
Match26 Jun 2027
Three points for Mara Sugar, 2‑0 the final word against Bidco United in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Thomas Harun
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
A brace, and Dennis Cheruiyot takes the afternoon — 7.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dennis Cheruiyot provided it, and the 7.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Thomas Harun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer from Muranga Seal for Joseph Ogenda 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Bernard Ondiek 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Dennis Cheruiyot’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mara Sugar.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Bernard Ondiek loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Bernard Ondiek's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
Aineah Ndete 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 Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Feb 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 Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Muhammadiyor Marifaliyev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lameck Omondi and Mara Sugar agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Evans Omondi Ouma has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mara Sugar 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Thomas Harun 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 Mara Sugar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Thomas Harun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Michael Isabwa 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 106% of everything Mara Sugar earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.