From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
141 days out for Douglas Mokaya after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mathare United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match19 Aug 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Douglas Mokaya decided otherwise. Ulinzi Stars had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Musa Masika takes the afternoon — 9.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Musa Masika provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mathare United have done the hard part with Bandari, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gor Mahia have kept their man, and Mathare United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Bandari, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Victor Omune 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Kenya Police, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bernard Jairo lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 1‑3 Martin Okoth left the room before anybody could ask which.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Cleo Ssetuba is in the works
Mathare United have made the call to AFC Leopards. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacob Onyango was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Elvis Ronack 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shabana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mathare United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Mathare United — 7.91
1 for Brian Ndenga, marked 7.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Victor Omune commits to Mathare United for another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Victor Omune 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Francis Kipkirui 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kenneth Kagere 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. Kenneth Karisa 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brian Ndenga. 1‑0 against APS Bomet, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Bandari 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Victor Omune and Mathare United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Victor Omune 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
No place for Victor Omune in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mathare United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.61 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Mathare United had the best player on the pitch.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Bernard Jairo is in the works
Mathare United have made the call to Nairobi United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Erick Balecho is in the works
Mathare United have made the call to Bandari. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Half-satisfied: Martin Okoth on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.