Marked for Ernest Mohammed
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Gor Mahia kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Nairobi United will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
88 days out for Brian Magare after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nairobi United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nairobi United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gad Mathews is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Gad Mathews: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Donald Ange Paterne takes the afternoon — 8.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Donald Ange Paterne provided it, and the 8.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Donald Ange Paterne has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kevin Okumu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
APS Bomet are out and Nairobi United go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
95 days out for Brian Magare after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nairobi United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Frank Ouya
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Kevin Otiende at 19 — 7.98
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Otiende did not need any: 7.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Kefa Nakhumicha delivers — 7.58
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kefa Nakhumicha scored, was marked 7.58, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Prince Buregeya and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 19 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Ernest Mohammed again, and this time the name on the line is Sofapaka. Nairobi United are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
-
Squad
Roy Okal reaches 100 appearances
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Squad
A row about effort at Nairobi United
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Nairobi United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benson Omalla commits to Nairobi United for another 4 years.
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 name of Bernard Jairo has come up in conversations Nairobi United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Shabana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market3 Aug 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Bandari 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Nairobi United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Mainge 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.