Robert Matano took his place in the AFC Leopards team bus around 6 pm on February 26, 1984.
It was time for the team to leave the Nyayo National Stadium for their base at the Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi’s Westlands area.
Leopards had just defeated their eternal rivals Gor Mahia 2-1 in that year’s Cecafa Club Championship final, and their driver, after setting the vehicle’s gear on neutral, became another passenger on the bus.
In their euphoric celebration, Ingwe fans committed to pushing their team’s bus to its destination. A distance of six kilometres was covered in three hours, and Matano stepped out of the bus with a lifetime lesson.
“That moment showed me what winning means to fans. From then on I always wanted to be a winner to relive that feeling and give it to others,” Matano told Nation Sport at the KCB Sports Club in Ruaraka last week.
The club, where KCB FC trains, is known as the “Den” in Kenyan sports circles, making it an apt home for Matano, nicknamed “The Lion”, as he plots to recreate the joy of winning with the bankers.
KCB head coach Robert Matano (second left) leads his technical bench after their opening match against of the 2025/26 SportPesa League against Tusker FC at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on September 19, 2025.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
The Den is home to KCB’s all-conquering men’s rugby and women’s volleyball teams. Their football franchise has been less successful. It has only two trophies – the 2003 Transparency Cup (now FKF Cup) and the 1996 Nairobi Provincial League – in 32 years of existence.
However, after the Johnny-come-lately duo of Kenya Police FC and Nairobi United won the FKF Premier League and the FKF Cup last season, the management of KCB was jolted to fast-track the team’s ascent to a championship club, according to a source at the club that wished to remain unnamed.
That recalibration saw the club announce Matano, a proven winner, as their coach on July 27. There could have been no bigger statement of the club’s intent than that.
Matano’s coaching career spans almost 40 years with stints across 17 clubs, starting with Pumwani Sportiff in 1986.
He proved himself a winner in all of them. He helped seven of those clubs gain promotion to the top flight and guided World Hope and AFC Leopards to FKF Cup triumphs in 2005 and 2017, respectively.
He won the Premier League with Sofapaka in 2009 and Tusker in 2012 and 2021. He also won the league with Tusker in 2022, but Nick Mwendwa’s FKF annulled that season as it was played under the FKF Caretaker Committee appointed by the government after the federation had been disbanded.
“Winning and sustaining a winning culture requires a lot of energy and ideas,” said Matano.
He depicted guiding Sofapaka to a league title in their maiden top-flight season in 2009 as a master class in “faking it until you make it.”
Sofapaka, owned by flashy Congolese businessman Elly Kalekwa, took Kenyan football by storm in the late 2000s.
Kalekwa brought to Kenyan football the extravagance and the sophistication of the Congolese sapeurs, splashing money to get the best players at Sofapaka after promising them fat salaries and allowances. Yet, as Matano recalled, it was all a façade.
“Contrary to what people thought, we did not have a lot of money at Sofapaka in 2009. We created an image and rode on it. I spent more time daily talking to the players to motivate them than coaching them. At times, winning is more about a state of mind than coaching methods,” Matano said.
Coach Robert Matano reacts on the touchline during a past FKF Premier League match between Sofapaka and Mathare United at Kenya Police Sacco Stadium on September 21, 2024.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
Yet in 2012, it was his coaching methods that made a difference as he helped Tusker defend their league title.
The Brewers appointed him after parting ways with Sammy 'Pamzo' Omollo with 10 matches to go. Matano masterminded a turnaround in the team’s performance that culminated in a dramatic league triumph on the final day of the season following a 3-0 win over Nairobi City Stars at Hope Centre.
Tusker leapfrogged Gor Mahia to first place and snatched the league title after going into the final round in second place with 57 points. Gor Mahia had 58 points but finished the day second with 59 points after drawing 1-1 with Thika United at City Stadium.
“I was competing against coaches (Gor Mahia’s Zdravko Logarusic and AFC Leopards’ Jan Koops) who had no prior experience of winning the league. There was no way I could lose to them,” Matano said proudly.
On that day, Matano demonstrated his legendary strictness. He started George Opiyo in goal because Tusker’s first-choice goalkeeper, Boniface Oluoch, reported late for the match.
“I value discipline and hard work. I am where I am in life because I have been a disciplined, honest, and straightforward person. I do not compromise on those values,” Matano said.
“I was orphaned early in life. I spent most of my childhood living in people’s houses all over the country. I would not have made it if I did not live by their rules. So, to people who find me strict, that is the story of my life,” Matano added.
Matano was born in Mombasa in 1965. However, he lied that he was born a year earlier so that he could start working to provide for himself. His father named him after former politician Robert Stanley Matano.
“Robert Stanley Matano was a friend of my father,” explains Matano.
Matano keeps “Stanley” silent in his name, and when asked about his family, he opens up about the deaths of all his siblings, reveals he has three wives, but refuses to disclose how many children he has.
“Luhya men do not count children,” he said.
However, when asked about his second spell at Tusker from 2018 to 2024, he did not hold back on his frustrations with the management of the club.
“It is like they wanted me to fail. They never got me the players I wanted and denied me most requests I made on behalf of the team. They only acquired free agents, players who had been dropped by their clubs. I won two league titles in that period and I never finished lower than second despite working in extremely difficult circumstances,” Matano lamented.
Tusker FC coach Robert Matano shouts instructions at his players during a KPL match with Gor Mahia at Ruaraka Grounds in Nairobi on July 8, 2021.
Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group
“I would have left Tusker sooner had it not been for my third wife, Carol. She kept me motivated. She used to tell me every morning, ‘go and prove them wrong’.”
Still, Matano is superfluous in his praise of former Tusker FC chairman, James Musyoki.
“He was a proper football man. I have high regard for him along with Ambrose Rachier (Gor Mahia), Dan Mule (former AFC Leopards chairman), Elly Kalekwa (Sofapaka), and Lieutenant General Juma Mwinyikai (former Ulinzi Stars chairman). They give proper support to coaches,” said Matano.
“Mwinyikai, in particular, came through for me when I needed extensive medical care after I suffered kidney failure when I was coaching Ulinzi Stars. I am eternally grateful to him, Ulinzi Stars, Doctor Andrew Suleh, and the thousands of Kenyans who supported me in that period,” Matano added.
The discussion on those five “football men” skewed the conversation to the other two men – now deceased – that Matano greatly revered.
He was a great friend of former Gor Mahia captain Austin Oduor. They became friends in the 1980s when both of them lived in Huruma, and their friendship blossomed despite Oduor playing for Gor Mahia and Matano wearing the colours of AFC Leopards.
When he was a budding footballer, Matano lived with former AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia player Jonathan Niva.
“Niva instilled discipline in me and long before I started coaching he told me I was destined to be a football coach,” Matano revealed.
Niva also coached Harambee Stars, a position that Matano has never held despite his success in Kenyan league football.
He remains the only Kenyan to guide a team to top flight title in the last 14 years, but, strangely, he has never been considered for the Kenyan job.
“Those who appoint people for that job know why they have never given me the job despite my record in Kenyan football. However, that does not worry me because I never beg for opportunities,” Matano said defiantly.
Still, Matano’s success has been appreciated outside Kenya’s borders. He joined KCB after a spell with Fountain Gate in Tanzania, but he does not have good memories of his time on the other side of the Kilimanjaro.
“Tanzanian players are not hardworking enough and motivating to get a result against Simba or Yanga is hard because they are staunch supporters of either clubs and they cannot think of themselves standing in the way of a Simba or Yanga victory,” Matano said.
“Tanzania is also a very big country. In most cases, we had to travel hundreds of kilometres in journeys that take over 24 hours. We used to arrive for matches fatigued and that made my work even more challenging,” he adds.
Now at KCB, Matano feels re-energised to enrich his legacy in Kenyan football, and he does not feel that he has to change his methods to keep up with the changing work culture due to Gen Zs joining the work space.
“I am not going to change how I work because Gen Zs want to be treated differently. As far as I know, Gen Zs also want to win and a Gen Z who wants to win is already aware of the demands that come with that,” says the KCB coach.
Still, Matano describes his football philosophy as “flexible”.
KCB Group Marketing and Communications Director Rosalind Gichuru presents a football to Robert Matano moments after his appointment as KCB FC head coach on June 27, 2025.
Photo credit: Pool | Nation Media Group
“I adjust with every game. I am not a rigid person. I am happy that KCB has supported me enough and I am working to deliver results.”
On accusations that he uses witchcraft to win matches, Matano was even more defiant in his response.
“If witchcraft wins matches, then people would sign witchdoctors to play for them.”
After a pause, he offers.
“Football is the only thing I have known in my life. I do not think I would be doing anything else other than it and dancing. Outside football, I enjoy dancing to Rhumba music. It is the other thing that gives me joy other than winning.”
