Marked for Kenneth Mulee
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Nov 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ochieng Mulee
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mathare United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces26 Nov 2035
Anger at Mathare United spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market26 Nov 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mathare United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Kevin Ouru 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 Nov 2035
Words at Mathare United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Wekesa 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces29 Oct 2035
Anger at Mathare United spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Peter Omurwa: 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.” Mathare United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market29 Oct 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mathare United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Kevin Ouru 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.
Boardroom29 Oct 2035
AFC Leopards will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Anton Sidorov has pre-agreed a move to Mathare United, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad29 Oct 2035
The medical room confirms 44 days on the sidelines for Kenneth Mulee, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Jul 2035
Gor Mahia go through and Mathare United go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match14 Jul 2035
Beaten 0‑3 by Sofapaka, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The terraces16 Jul 2035
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Market16 Jul 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mathare United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mathare United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Richard 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.
Match14 Jul 2035
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mathare United can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad16 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Brian Wekesa
“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
Uneasy
The terraces14 May 2035
The mood at Mathare United 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.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Kenneth Mulee could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.56
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.56, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings14 May 2035
George Owusu, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad14 May 2035
A one-man rearguard from Kevin Ouru
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market14 May 2035
“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.
Squad14 May 2035
Kevin Ouru 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 Mathare United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces14 May 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Kenneth Mulee 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.
Match12 May 2035
Shabana left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Jan 2035
The mood at Mathare United 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Brian Wekesa breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 Jan 2035
Amos Mulee 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 Mathare United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Jan 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mathare United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2035
65 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Jan 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kenneth Mulee and Mathare United agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom15 Jan 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Mathare United
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Brian Wekesa breaks a bone — 39 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Jan 2035
“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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Kevin Ouru 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.
Boardroom15 Jan 2035
AFC Leopards will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Victor Okoth has pre-agreed a move to Mathare United, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market15 Jan 2035
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.