Marked for David Polepole
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Tusker until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tusker is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Tusker
Siyanda Ndlovu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Teuta Durrës have kept their man, and Tusker go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market1 Feb 2027
The name of Cliff Oruko has come up in conversations Tusker were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Tusker
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Otieno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
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.
Market1 Feb 2027
The name of Chris Erambo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Tusker say nothing, which says plenty.
Market1 Feb 2027
The window shut and Vincent Owino is still in the building
Tusker spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tusker have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Mara Sugar pay $61.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Plateau United have kept their man, and Tusker go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Teuta Durrës: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Thomas Teka 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 Ian Simiyu Jr. is on it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Tusker know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ulinzi Stars waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tusker is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Muranga Seal had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market11 Jan 2027
Eugene Ikutwa 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Tusker
Siyanda Ndlovu 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 targets11 Jan 2027
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 dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Victor Mbaoma, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan move for Lwandiso Radebe is in the works
Tusker have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Barau 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Tusker will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Tusker
Siyanda Ndlovu 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Tusker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Otieno 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Victor Mbaoma asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Dennis Magio
“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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Collins Odhiambo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tusker will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market26 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Eric Kapaito’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match9 Sep 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Siyanda Ndlovu obliged against KCB. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Tusker.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Siyanda Ndlovu takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Siyanda Ndlovu provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 Sep 2026
Tusker cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market14 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Ulinzi Stars moved on, David Polepole reports back to Tusker, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Tusker
Siyanda Ndlovu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Victor Mbaoma. 2‑1 against AFC Leopards, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ulinzi Stars waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tusker is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 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 Tusker can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 15 in, 0 out at Tusker
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ikorodu City have kept their man, and Tusker go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Siyanda Ndlovu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.54. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
Tusker march on in the cup
Mathare United are out and Tusker go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match29 Aug 2026
No mercy from Tusker
Ulinzi Stars will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Tusker were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Siyanda Ndlovu, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
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 Tusker, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Ikorodu City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Tusker asked and Gor Mahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.