“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 The request is on a desk at Kariobangi Sharks, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kariobangi Sharks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kariobangi Sharks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patillah Omoto signs something — a contract at Kariobangi Sharks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kariobangi Sharks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kariobangi Sharks, another week without a signature from Dominic Kipkirui.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luke Onesmas signs something — a contract at Kariobangi Sharks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kariobangi Sharks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Kariobangi Sharks 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 The request is on a desk at Kariobangi Sharks, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kariobangi Sharks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kariobangi Sharks can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” James Kahata after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kariobangi Sharks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hassan Beja did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Kenya Police have accepted the money. What Kariobangi Sharks do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Kariobangi Sharks, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Kariobangi Sharks know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Faiz Opande 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.
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.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kariobangi Sharks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kariobangi Sharks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 5, 30 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“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.
The dugout31 May 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by James Kahata to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Patillah Omoto'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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sphelele Shandu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kariobangi Sharks will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
8 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kariobangi Sharks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sphelele Shandu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sphelele Shandu has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 Ian Karani is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Shabana in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Hassan Beja 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” David Obasanjo has his answer from Kariobangi Sharks; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simphiwe Dumisa is living that version at Kariobangi Sharks, and it tends to show in the first month.
Faiz Opande 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jayden Van der Walt and Kariobangi Sharks agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ally Salum Omar 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.
Nobody at Kariobangi Sharks 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kariobangi Sharks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Hassan Beja 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ally Salum Omar 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kariobangi Sharks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Keegan Ndemi scored in the 88th minute, Posta Rangers had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Kariobangi Sharks took the lot.
The fee is $22.0K, 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.
Hassan Beja was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $310.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Kariobangi Sharks asked and Bendel Insurance said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Dalphine Omuri, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 Shabana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kariobangi Sharks pay $22.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
“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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Victor Miheso left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Dalphine Omuri is on it.