Marked for Cliff Oruko
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.62 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brian Opondo 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 Tusker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Cliff Oruko
At 23 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Eric Kapaito gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Tusker
0‑1 against Kenya Police, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 13 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dennis Oalo 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 Tusker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑2 to AFC Leopards, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brian Opondo gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tusker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dancan Omala 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
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Tusker, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Sep 2026
Tusker make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tusker have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Tusker
Dennis Oalo 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 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dennis Oalo. 1‑0 against Mathare United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Dennis Oalo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Dennis Wanjala
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dancan Omala 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Thomas Teka
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Thomas Teka has come out of that comparison in the side, and Tusker have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Tusker march on in the cup
Mathare United are out and Tusker go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Tusker did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Aug 2026
Vincent Owino 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 Tusker can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Joseph Kemin, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.57
A mark of 8.57 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Tusker sell a favourite for $56.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Edwin Simiyu was one of the reasons people came, and $56.0K does not replace that by itself.
Match29 Aug 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tusker
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Dennis Oalo 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 Tusker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Edwin Simiyu goes
AFC Leopards paid $56.0K and Tusker took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Cliff Oruko
At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Brian Opondo 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 Tusker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Tusker know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tusker, another week without a signature from Dennis Oalo.
Market10 Aug 2026
Eugene Ikutwa is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Tusker has been clear about where Eugene Ikutwa stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad10 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for Tusker?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bidco United? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eric Kapaito and Tusker agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Tusker
Brian Opondo 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Eric Kapaito’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tusker.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.44 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eric Kapaito finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Tusker have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alex Onchwari has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Tusker.