Marked for Emmanuel Obala
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The mood at Mara Sugar has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match1 Nov 2027
Mara Sugar are in real trouble now
Position 17, 20 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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Squad1 Nov 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Brian Musa 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Ibrahim Ochieng, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Emmanuel Obala without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Emmanuel Obala was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Market1 Nov 2027
Mara Sugar have made Sanele Mhlangu available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Aug 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.
Market23 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Mara Sugar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match21 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Mara Sugar
8 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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Squad23 Aug 2027
Alex Imbusia 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 targets23 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sofapaka have kept their man, and Mara Sugar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes of Brian Musa at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Mara Sugar.
Market23 Aug 2027
Emmanuel Obala is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mara Sugar has been clear about where Emmanuel Obala stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match21 Aug 2027
It needed Brian Musa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Posta Rangers, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done: Brian Musa joins from Kenya Police in a deal worth $140.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The offer went to Kenya Police this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$11.0K was the most the club would pay and Gor Mahia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Brian Musa from Kenya Police for $140.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Luyanda Makhathini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout9 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Mara Sugar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Isabwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Brian Ochieng
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
Wasi Ngala 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 Wasi Ngala is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alex Imbusia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 124% of the Mara Sugar 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Mara Sugar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Isabwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of John Owira
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Mara Sugar's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mara Sugar has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alex Imbusia 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 dugout21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Mara Sugar
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.67 on the card, and the Mara Sugar support went home talking about one name.
Match19 Sep 2026
It needed Mark Bikokwa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Gor Mahia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Patrick Mwendwa chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Mukangula 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Mara Sugar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.