Football fans watch a past English FA Cup match between Arsenal and Chelsea in Mombasa.
Over the years, Kenya’s fatal attraction to the English Premier League has left a trail of death and destruction, but these tragedies aside, the Premiership continues to grow a fan base, unabated, some 10,000 kilometres away from its epicenter.
Shops and vendors in major Kenyan towns make booming business by selling fake replica jerseys of top Premiership sides with Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea, and a sprinkling on Manchester City, easily the most popular with Kenyan fans.
With a genuine club match jersey selling at an average Sh12,000 online, on Kenyan backstreets, fake, pocket-friendly replicas go for as little as Sh1,000 with fans desperate to display a sense of belonging and position themselves strategically for banter with opposing supporters.
Fan clubs of English Premier League (EPL) sides are meticulous in their operations, some holding prayer gatherings to seek divine intervention for their beloved clubs, while others engage in tree-planting, charity work, blood donations, road trips and end-of-year parties.
Others remain well-informed and active on WhatsApp groups.
In 2022, a Manchester United fan club in Meru offered a “Red Devils” funeral to one of their own, Irene Kathure Mururu, 37, draping her coffin in Man United colours and logo with pallbearers donning the club’s home and away jerseys, Mururu’s favourite number 9 jersey displayed side-by-side with her portrait.
“She was a committed fan who never missed out on anything that pertained her club, from social events to fanaticism. She had Manchester United at heart and was also an ex-official of Manchester United’s Meru fans,” the fans paid tribute on social media.
Deaths well documented
Reports of Kenyan Premiership fans killing one another, or taking their own lives after match results turn awry are well documented.
As recently as in May this year, it was reported that an Arsenal fan was bludgeoned to death by his Manchester United rival after the “Gunners” edged out the “Red Devils” 1-0 at Old Trafford.
In February, 2014, another Kenyan Arsenal fan stabbed his Liverpool opposite number to death in a Meru pub as they watched Liverpool maul the “Gunners” 5-1 in a league match.
Liverpool FC even sent a message of condolences to the family of the fan, Anthony Muteitha.
In May, 2009, a 29-year-old Arsenal fan committed suicide in Nairobi’s Huruma Estate after his favourite club was bundled out of the Uefa Champions League after finding themselves on the wrong end of a 4-1 aggregate thrashing by bitter rivals Man United.
And in 2013, a 28-year-old Man United fan also sent himself to his maker, hurling his distraught self from the seventh floor to the concrete in Nairobi’s Pipeline Estate after David Moyes’ “Red Devils” plummeted 13 points off leaders Arsenal in the Premiership race.
Video halls
In populous suburbs, video dens have mushroomed with fans charged between Sh30 to Sh70 to watch live games, the charges depending on which teams are in action.
“I usually charge Sh40 for the matches with a slight increase to Sh50 for the big fixtures,” explains Clinton “Shive” Mbaisi, a footballer who also runs a video hall in Nairobi’s sprawling Kawangware area.
“The English Premier League is in demand because it is competitive and entertaining. In the Spanish “La Liga” League, for instance, matches are predictable and the usual suspects Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid, in particular, dominate. But the EPL is unpredictable and even a “small” team can cause an upset.”
He blames the disinterest in the Kenyan league on lack of proper marketing.
“Attendance at the majority of Kenyan league games is low because of poor marketing. You could have a Gor Mahia vs AFC Leopards match on the cards on a particular weekend and find that many fans aren’t aware of the fixture.”
Currently, Tanzania’s pay television outlet Azam is contracted for the live broadcast of Kenyan Premier League matches.
“But Azam decoders are out of reach for many and that’s why you find fans apathetic towards the league,” argues “Shive”.
MultiChoice Kenya, franchise holders of South Africa’s SuperSport pay TV, have introduced subscription packages for as low as Sh1,350 per month to access live EPL, La Liga and Serie A matches.
SuperSport used to broadcast Kenyan league games but were forced to withdraw from Kenya due to the poor management of the game.
“When the Kenyan league games were on SuperSport, I used to have many fans following them live in my hall,” adds Dennis “Duggan” Otichiro, another operator of a video hall in Kawangware. “But since SuperSport stopped broadcasting the matches, the interest dropped.
“Having Kenyan league games live on SuperSport brought a different spirit and love for the game,” explains “Duggan” who charges between Sh50 and Sh70 per fan for the live EPL broadcasts.
Betting
Interestingly, Samuel Mbugua, a resident of Mpeketoni in Lamu County and a staunch Arsenal fan, is attracted to the English Premier League because of the opportunities the league offers in betting.
“In the multi-bet or jackpot, there are more chances of winning from English Premier League matches. Our local matches are not visible enough and it makes it hard to predict,” Mbugua explained yesterday.
Like “Duggan”, he also blames lack of live television broadcasts for the dearth of the Kenyan game.
“English Premier League matches are broadcast live, with repeats and highlights available, but we hardly see our local matches televised,” adds Mbugua who loves the way Gunners’ Brazilian forward Gabriel Martinelli struts his stuff.
Gaming companies have also taken advantage of the Kenyan obsession with the EPL, setting up viewing centres where fans can watch games and place their bets. The mushrooming of betting outfits has had its negative effects on the Kenyan game where some players and officials have been accused of fixing matches to the advantage of bookmakers.
Like “Shive”, Kenyan Premier League side Talanta FC midfielder Augustine Kuta argues that lack of hype denies the Kenyan game a strong fan base.
“The KPL is not as hyped as the EPL. The EPL is admired partly because of the way it is marketed,” the Number 10 observes, adding that Kenyan facilities are another let-down.
“The kind of surface that we play on does not promote the kind of game that football fans want to watch.”
Mariga, Wanyama experience
If he had his way, McDonald Mariga would have been in the Director’s Box at the Etihad Stadium watching tonight’s Manchester derby (kick-off 7.30pm Kenyan time) as a Manchester City legend.
But, sadly, his much-trumpeted move to the Etihad in 2010 after 35 appearances at Parma helped the Emilia Romagna club back into Italy’s top-tier Seria ‘A’ league fell through as he failed to obtain a work permit.
This because Kenya’s low ranking (98th at the time) on the Fifa rankings meant that the midfielder could not obtain a work permit to play in England where rules stipulate that a player’s nation should be in the top 70 places on the Fifa rankings, and that the player must have featured in at least 75 percent of his country’s national team games to qualify for an English work permit.
At the time, Parma and City had agreed on a transfer fee of seven million pounds (Sh1.1 billion in today’s exchange rates) for the defensive midfielder.
But Mariga’s younger brother Victor Wanyama was luckier as, having played in the United Kingdom for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, he became Kenya’s first player to feature in the English Premier League after signing for Southampton in July, 2013, for a reported fee of 12.5 million pounds (Sh2 billion today).
Wanyama was later snapped up by Mauricio Pochettino into the Tottenham Hotspur roster where he played from 2016 to 2020, making 69 appearances scoring six goals, before crossing continents into the US Major Soccer League, turning out for Montreal Impact CF.
Now aged 33, Wanyama recently announced his retirement after a stellar career to focus on, among others, his upcoming football academy in Western Kenya.
New federation’s hope
The since-retired Mariga, 37, is now Football Kenya Federation Vice-President having been voted into office alongside President Hussein Mohammed last weekend and has an opportunity to make things right for the Kenyan game after his own painful Parma-Man City experience fueled by Kenya’s low ranking.
“We need the fans back into the stadiums,” he said on the sidelines of the unveiling of Kenya’s Africa Cup of Nations and African Football Championship Local Organising Committee by Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen last Tuesday.
“During our playing days, we used to have lots of fans in Kenyan stadiums. We really need support from the media to help get the fans back and to make our game vibrant again,” added Mariga who started his pro career off at Tusker FC and Kenya Pipeline FC, winning the Uefa Champions League with Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in 2010.
“It is unfortunate that today, we don’t have any Kenyan player featuring in the top European leagues today…There’s a lot to be done to improve the standards and we must start by lifting up the Kenyan game. The players must be seen to be signed by the top clubs,” he noted.
Violet Kerubo Momanyi, also voted into FKF as the Women’s Representative in the National Executive Council, is equally upbeat.
“The onus is on the federation to teach marketing techniques to club owners and people in club management to make local teams relevant, exciting and, most of all, competitive,” Kerubo argued yesterday.
“Involving teams and players in community-based activities, for example, would make them more relatable to the targeted niche.”
All is not lost
Indeed, all is not lost in the local game as Kenyan Premier League returnees Shabana FC have joined serial winners Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards in the game of numbers, enjoying mass following.
“I follow Kenyan football more than the Premiership because it’s my wish to see the Kenyan game grow,” asserts Machana Onchong’a, a die-hard Shabana FC fan.
“I have been following tournaments in the grassroots to identify talent and I also follow Arsenal in the English Premier League particularly because I love their football development programmes.”
Shabana held Gor to a 1-1 draw after edging out Leopards 2-1 and will be up against table-toppers KCB at their Gusii Stadium fortress from 2pm today.
“If a little improvement is done by the FKF in the management of the game – especially in officiating and standards of the fields of play, then we are headed in the right direction,” another fan, Dennis George Ontita asserts.
“In my opinion, the Kenyan Premier League is the next big thing in African football.” Certainly, Hussein, Mariga and their new team at FKF have their work cut out!
