Marked for Kenneth Mulee
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2032
Tempers go at KCB
Bacari Djamanca 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.
Squad27 Dec 2032
A row about effort at KCB
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nashon Wekesa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom27 Dec 2032
107% of the income goes out in wages at KCB
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KCB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market27 Dec 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KCB know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KCB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Words at KCB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Japheth Lihanda 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.
Boardroom13 Dec 2032
KCB are $12.9M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad13 Dec 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patrick Rupia commits to KCB for another 3 years.
Market13 Dec 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Douglas Ochoko signs something — a contract at KCB or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout13 Dec 2032
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2032
Words exchanged at KCB
Nashon Wekesa 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.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Chukwuma Okoye arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Chukwuma Okoye has, at KCB, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
This is not rotation. Clyde Senaji has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at KCB is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Words at KCB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Japheth Lihanda 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.
Squad22 Nov 2032
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Kenneth Okoth, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market22 Nov 2032
Chukwuma Okoye is 18, and KCB have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Oct 2032
Tempers go at KCB
Kelvin Etemesi 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 dugout25 Oct 2032
This is not rotation. Clyde Senaji has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at KCB is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Nashon Wekesa 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.
Squad25 Oct 2032
The medical room confirms 51 days on the sidelines for Kenneth Okoth, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
Eric Mensah 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.
Squad25 Oct 2032
The division's best last weekend was a KCB man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Douglas Ochoko was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
Eric Ouma gets picked when it counts
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 Eric Ouma is on it.
Market25 Oct 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nashon Wekesa’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market25 Oct 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match11 Sep 2032
APS Bomet punish KCB for switching off
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Kelvin Etemesi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at KCB escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Tom Wiles arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tom Wiles has, at KCB, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match11 Sep 2032
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Sep 2032
A falling-out at KCB
Kelvin Etemesi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Words at KCB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nashon 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.
Market13 Sep 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 3‑4 Ismael Lozano left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2032
Words exchanged at KCB
Kelvin Etemesi 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.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Words at KCB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nashon 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.
Match17 Apr 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bacari Djamanca. 1‑0 against Kakamega Homeboyz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom19 Apr 2032
KCB are $11.4M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad19 Apr 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicholas Wanyama commits to KCB for another 3 years.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ismael Lozano could afford to be generous.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2032
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at KCB
Kelvin Etemesi 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.
Match28 Feb 2032
The drought breaks for KCB
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Muranga Seal were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match28 Feb 2032
It finished 3‑2, and it was Bacari Djamanca’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to KCB.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Nashon Wekesa 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.
Match28 Feb 2032
KCB settle it inside twenty minutes
3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Muranga Seal spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings1 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings1 Mar 2032
Ninety minutes of Japheth Lihanda at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KCB.
Squad1 Mar 2032
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Harrison Owusu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom19 Jan 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KCB
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market19 Jan 2032
“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 KCB, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jan 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KCB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jan 2032
A row about effort at KCB
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nashon Wekesa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
Gor Mahia 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.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
Eric Ouma gets picked when it counts
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 Eric Ouma is on it.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
Victor Otieno knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Victor Otieno trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Jan 2032
The name of Kelvin Etemesi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. KCB say nothing, which says plenty.
Match19 Jan 2032
A season winding down at KCB
Position 14, 39 points, safe from one end and out of reach of the other. The last weeks are about next season now, and the team sheet has started saying so.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Dec 2031
A falling-out at KCB
Kelvin Etemesi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
A promise honoured for Liam Davis
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KCB told Liam Davis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
Joseph Ogenda loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Joseph Ogenda's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad1 Dec 2031
KCB will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
Nyamawi Beja 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 dugout1 Dec 2031
James Olunga 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.
Market1 Dec 2031
The Nyamawi Beja story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nyamawi Beja signs something — a contract at KCB or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KCB would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Oct 2031
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad13 Oct 2031
He is 20, he is averaging 7.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Words exchanged at KCB
Kelvin Etemesi 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.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
Nyamawi Beja 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.
Boardroom13 Oct 2031
Wages eat 107% of everything KCB 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.
Boardroom13 Oct 2031
KCB can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
Liam Davis has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KCB 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.
Market13 Oct 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kelvin Etemesi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market13 Oct 2031
The clock does Nyamawi Beja’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee KCB could ask drops and the wages Nyamawi Beja can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Sep 2031
Nowhere to hide for KCB
0‑5 against Gor Mahia, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
Kenneth Okoth: 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.” KCB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Tempers go at KCB
Kelvin Etemesi 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.
Market22 Sep 2031
One of our own: Brian Amuka joins the KCB first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Brian Amuka is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 Sep 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joseph Kipkirui has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market22 Sep 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kevin Kibwage 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.
Market22 Sep 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kenneth Mulee 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.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Clyde Senaji, and the manager let it.
Boardroom22 Sep 2031
Inquest at KCB
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.