Jonathan McKinstry, the coach of The Gambia national football team, must be finding the Irish Rovers’ Dublin Pub Crawl song resonant with his and the Scorpions’ stadium-hopping in Kenya. To remix the song, McKinstry and The Scorpions have been like a jolly crew of Irish bar-hoppers.
Since September, they have been visiting Kenya for a match or two and having a hell of a time on stadium hops that abound with goals and points for them.
The Gambia played two 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying matches in Nairobi in September. They beat Harambee Stars 3-1 at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on September 5 before silencing Burundi and their large diaspora in Kenya with a 2-0 victory at Nyayo National Stadium on September 9.
Kenya skipper Micheal Olunga (right) controls the ball under the watchful eye of The Gambia's Alaigne Saine during a Group 'F' match of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi on September 5, 2025.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
That match against Burundi was Gambia’s home match. They hosted the match in Nairobi because their country does not have a CAF-approved venue.
“We find it easy to play our match against Burundi in Kenya because it makes logistics easy for us,” McKinstry said in September ahead of their two qualifiers against Kenya and Burundi.
The Scorpions are set to play in Kenya yet again, on Friday. They host The Panthers of Gabon at Kasarani in both teams’ penultimate 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying match. After the match, The Gambia will travel to Mauritius to play Seychelles as they conclude their campaign.
The Scorpions are third in Group F with 10 points from eight matches. The World Cup which will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
The Gambia players celebrate a goal against Burundi during a Group 'F' match of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on September 9, 2025.
Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group
But everything will be on the line for Gabon. They have to win the match to keep their World Cup qualification hopes alive. They are second in the group with 19 points. Cote d’Ivoire, who play Seychelles on Friday before hosting Harambee Stars on October 14, lead the group with 20 points.
The team winning Group F will qualify for the World Cup automatically. The second-placed team will be sent to the play-offs.
The Gambia’s two victories in Nairobi in September echoed with exploits of McKinstry previous assignments in Kenya and East Africa, a region the peripatetic 40-year old Northern Irishman is extremely familiar with.
After coaching Rwanda (2015-2016) and Uganda (2019-2021) with relative success, McKinstry landed in Kenya, and coached Kenyan Premier League giants Gor Mahia, from 2022 to 2024. He won two league titles and a FKF Charity Shield with K’Ogalo before leaving for The Gambia to take charge of his fourth national team job.
Speaking before playing Harambee Stars in September, McKinstry described his return to Kenya as a “business trip”.
“It is always nice to come back to Kenya but I am here for business,” he said.
The Gambia national football coach Jonathan McKinstry speaks to the media during his team's training at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, on September 2 2025.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo| Nation Media Group
Still, before the match, McKinstry had spent over a week in Kenya catching up with old friends. He was photographed going out for lunch with his former colleagues at Gor Mahia before unleashing mayhem on Harambee Stars.
Kenya also proved a good hunting ground for Gabon. They defeated Kenya 2-1 in March in a World Cup qualifier a Nyayo Stadium. The match was Stars’ first home competitive match since November 2021, when CAF declared Kasarani and Nyayo unfit to host international matches.
Gabon’s talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 36, who plays for Olympique de Marseille in the French Ligue 1, scored their goals, becoming only the third former African Footballer of the Year, since 2000, to play a match against Harambee Stars in Nairobi, after Nigeria’s Nwankwo Kanu in 2007 and Egyptian Mohammed Salah in 2021.
Gabon forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reacts after missing a goal opportunity during the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations Group A match against Burkina Faso at the Stade de l'Amitie Sino-Gabonaise in Libreville on January 18, 2017.
Photo credit: File | AFP
Later, the former Arsenal, Chelsea, and Barcelona striker took to X to describe his experience in Nairobi. He shared two posts which garnered over one million views. One featured two photos of him celebrating his goals against Harambee Stars and another one stated, “Kenya was mad. Thanks for the welcome.”
Before the match, Aubameyang told the Kenyan media that qualifying for the World Cup with Gabon will be a “dream come true.” With the target closer than ever, Aubameyang and Gabon will be hoping that Kenya will prove a good hunting ground yet again.
Since CAF approved Kasarani and Nyayo in March, The Gambia and clubs from Somalia and South Sudan have hosted international matches against non-Kenyan rivals in Nairobi.
That has increased businesses for Kenyan hotel owners and transport services providers. Teams, and referees, visiting to feature in those matches lodge in local hotels and procure transport services from Kenyan companies and individuals. FKF officials and other Kenyan football stakeholders play a role in organising those matches, hence translating to more income for Kenyan football administrators.
If anything, The Gambia hosting Gabon in Nairobi is a prime example of the benefits that Kenya stands to gain by investing in more top-notch sports facilities. Sports is putting Kenya on the map and the country can only build on that.
