Marked for Anthony Muguna
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Supporters organise against the Mara Sugar board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ibrahim Ochieng out for 124 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mara Sugar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Nov 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.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Isabwa 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 99% of everything Mara Sugar 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 Nov 2026
A promise honoured for Frank Ouya
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mara Sugar told Frank Ouya something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vincent Mulama signs something — a contract at Mara Sugar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Supporters organise against the Mara Sugar board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market2 Nov 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Lameck Omondi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 99% of everything Mara Sugar 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Mara Sugar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sammy Odero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mara Sugar, another week without a signature from Emmanuel Obala.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mara Sugar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market2 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vincent Mulama signs something — a contract at Mara Sugar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 Anthony Muguna is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces5 Oct 2026
Supporters organise against the Mara Sugar board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market5 Oct 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 Mara Sugar, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 137% 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sammy Odero and Mara Sugar agree another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sammy Odero 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Timothy Ndayala has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market5 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vincent Mulama signs something — a contract at Mara Sugar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market5 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mara Sugar, another week without a signature from Timothy Ndayala.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Mara Sugar
A 0‑4 beating by Gor Mahia was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market21 Sep 2026
Aineah Ndete 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 Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
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
Michael Isabwa 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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Mara Sugar dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jesse Wanyama after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Aug 2026
Muranga Seal ended it 3‑5. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market17 Aug 2026
Ashraf Dahir 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 Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ben Saul, 21, steals the show — 7.67
Marked 7.67 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bandari is saying, and nobody at Mara Sugar is enjoying the guessing.
Match15 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Mara Sugar
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Mara Sugar are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Match12 Aug 2026
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mara Sugar and Muranga Seal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$54.0K was the most the club would pay and AFC Leopards 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Cyrus Oucho 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 Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mara Sugar have done the hard part with Bandari, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$21.0K on the table at Nairobi United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Frank Ouya
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicholas Mukangula is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Anthony Muguna is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eric Kahata has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sammy Odero commits to Mara Sugar for another 1 years.