Marked for Kevin Munika
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Market29 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Gilbert Abala
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gilbert Abala will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shabana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. David Odoyo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shabana is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shabana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Shabana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Mazembe 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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Nairobi United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
Erick Otieno 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 Shabana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market29 Jan 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Mazembe signs something — a contract at Shabana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Shabana
Maxwell Mulili 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 targets15 Jan 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Shabana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Mazembe 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 dugout15 Jan 2029
Ezekiah Omuri knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ezekiah Omuri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Gilbert Abala 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 Gilbert Abala is on it.
Market15 Jan 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Erick Otieno’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market15 Jan 2029
Shabana have made Christopher Koloti available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market15 Jan 2029
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Shabana could get for him.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Questions about Biron Otieno on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Cliff Nyakeya has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shabana is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Shabana
Maxwell Mulili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A move Abdulhamid Kabiru would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdulhamid Kabiru is living that version at Shabana, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Shabana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Mazembe 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
A promise honoured for David Odoyo
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Shabana told David Odoyo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Biron Otieno is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 89% of the Shabana 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdulhamid Kabiru commits to Shabana for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Oct 2028
“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.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Cliff Nyakeya has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shabana is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Shabana
Maxwell Mulili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Shabana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Mazembe 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adraman Yahaya and Shabana agree another 1 years.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Wages eat 98% of everything Shabana 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.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market30 Oct 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shabana, another week without a signature from Kevin Munika.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jun 2028
“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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. George Onyango has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shabana is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Shabana
Maxwell Mulili 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Shabana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Mazembe 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.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Jun 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Muranga Seal leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“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 dugout26 Jun 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Victor Ochieng after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Ezekiah Omuri 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Shabana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Mazembe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Feb 2028
The run at home goes on for Shabana
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Erick Otieno 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Everybody at Shabana saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
The afternoon belonged to Kevin Munika
A mark of 6.94, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Shabana
Ezekiah Omuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Derrick Onyango has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shabana is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Kevin Munika 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shabana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Jan 2028
5 new faces, and Shabana are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
David Odoyo 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 Shabana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Jan 2028
At 36, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.