Marked for Ernest Mohammed
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nairobi United can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Shami Mwinyi yet — 8.00
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Nairobi United's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nairobi United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Prince Buregeya 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ovella 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.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 5.34. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Nairobi United did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yusuf Mainge 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Frank Ouya, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Michael Karamor
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Michael Karamor has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nairobi United have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Kenya Police leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad7 Sep 2026
John Njuguna dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 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 Nairobi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $89.0K sale of Brian Magare
He is going to Kariobangi Sharks, the club has $89.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yusuf Mainge 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Nairobi United do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Shami Mwinyi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nairobi United.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Benson Omalla
“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
Steady
Market24 Aug 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 Nairobi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
Dancan Omala has left for Tusker in a $45.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yusuf Mainge 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Bidco United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ernest Mohammed
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.49, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kevin Omondi 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mustafa Kizza 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 Mustafa Kizza trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
Yusuf Mainge 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Mara Sugar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of John Otieno
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Nairobi United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Lennox Ogutu is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nairobi United has been clear about where Lennox Ogutu stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on John Njuguna's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benson Omalla and Nairobi United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nairobi United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Nairobi United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yusuf Mainge 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mustafa Kizza has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Nairobi United.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Benson Omalla
“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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.