Marked for Michael Mukangula
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Nov 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sofapaka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Ochieng Wanyama has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sofapaka can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Crisis meeting at Sofapaka
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market6 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sofapaka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Sofapaka
Douglas Ochoko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Titus Achesa 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sofapaka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Oct 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sofapaka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match9 Oct 2028
The season ends: position 11 for Sofapaka
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 48 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market9 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Victor Augo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Augo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sofapaka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market9 Oct 2028
“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 Sofapaka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Japheth Lihanda and Sofapaka agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Titus Achesa 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 Sofapaka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Douglas Ochoko 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.
The terraces9 Oct 2028
He is 17 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Exauce Misuri. 1‑0 against Kenya Police, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Sofapaka close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
No thanks: Mark Shaban rejects the move
Sofapaka had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Gor Mahia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Douglas Ochoko 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Graduation day at Sofapaka
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
$21.0K was the most the club would pay and Posta Rangers 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Titus Achesa 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.
Match5 Feb 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market7 Feb 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibrahim Masika is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market7 Feb 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Brian Mbugua is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.