From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tenuka Ranaweera
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nairobi United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Prince Buregeya 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Kenya Police left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Benson Omalla
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
John Njuguna pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 5.63, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tenuka Ranaweera damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑3 to Muranga Seal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Eric Mainge, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.76, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yusuf Mainge was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ovella Ochieng, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Nairobi United will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nairobi United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 14 in, 2 out at Nairobi United
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Nairobi United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Mainge 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Eric Gichimu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nairobi United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Jonas Mailula arrives at Nairobi United with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nairobi United, another week without a signature from Jonas Mailula.
Market7 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Herman Mwambegu may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nairobi United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 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 Nairobi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Shafic Ssebyala at his very best
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nairobi United.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Brian Magare
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Nairobi United will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yusuf Mainge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Nairobi United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nairobi United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nairobi United have done the hard part with Mathare United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kevin Okumu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.25 on the card, and the Nairobi United support went home talking about one name.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Victor Chemelil was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nairobi United dressing room was either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yusuf Mainge 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Roy Okal's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match22 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Kariobangi Sharks defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Aug 2026
Mara Sugar will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nairobi United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match12 Aug 2026
APS Bomet ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Gad Mathews
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Nairobi United — 7.64
1 for Yusuf Mainge, marked 7.64, 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Prince Buregeya and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Nairobi United asked and Sofapaka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.29 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Gad Mathews
There were 9 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ulinzi Stars is saying, and nobody at Nairobi United is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Prince Buregeya 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Nairobi United asked and Kariobangi Sharks said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match8 Aug 2026
1‑2 to KCB, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Mustafa Kizza ran the middle of the pitch — 7.13
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.13, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Caleb Mbugua 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Collins Ayumba 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benson Omalla commits to Nairobi United for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nairobi United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Nairobi United asked and Posta Rangers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Bernard Jairo has come up in conversations Nairobi United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michael Karamor. 1‑0 against Shabana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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 7.65 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Nairobi United had the best player on the pitch.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Mark Bikokwa is in the works
Nairobi United have made the call to Ulinzi Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
Words at Nairobi United training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
Nothing got past Prince Buregeya