“No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come,” Victor Hugo, a French romantic author and poet, once said.
Kenya’s Lakers Hockey Club’s recent historic performance in Harare, Zimbabwe, is a perfect example of Victor Hugo’s famous words.
They are the new Africa Cup for Club Champions, having travelled 7,228 kilometres to win the title that had eluded Kenya for eight years.
In November 2023, the Lakers came close to winning the ACCC in Blantyre, Malawi. In that contest, they defeated Nigeria’s Delta Queens 2–0 to reach the final against Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Royal Ladies. The West African team had advanced after beating the Kenyan champions, Blazers, 4–1 in the other semi-final.
However, the unthinkable happened. As the Lakers were having breakfast ahead of their final against the GRA, officials from the Africa Hockey Federation stormed their hotel and declared that they would not play in the final, allegedly for fielding ineligible players.
The GRA Royal Ladies then faced the Blazers in the final, a match the Lakers attempted to halt by protesting an unfair decision — a move that came with hefty consequences.
The club was fined Sh344,341, which had to be paid before they could play again. Meanwhile, four of their officials were banned for five years and fined Sh172,170 each.
Having been reduced to a mere shell of its former self, the club paid the necessary fine to compete in the 2024 Women’s Premier League. They finished third from bottom, narrowly avoiding relegation. Only the bottom two teams were demoted.
Before travelling to Blantyre by road, the Lakers wrote to the Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) to request the addition of some of their registered players to their team, as several of their own players had failed to secure their passports in time.
“The KHU released the players, but we are still bothered by how they turned against us,” said the club’s patron, Robert Ekhaya.
Lakers Hockey Club captain Alice Owiti lifts the trophy aloft in celebrations with teammates after winning the Women’s Africa Cup for Club Championships in Harare Zimbabwe.
Photo credit: Pool
Fast forward to 2026, and the Lakers became the first Kenyan women’s team since 2018, and the second community club, to win the Africa title. They achieved this by rallying from behind to hold the defending champions, GRA, to a 1–1 draw in regulation time. The Kenyan side ended GRA’s continental dominance when they beat them 2–0 in a penalty shoot-out.
GRA first won the title in 2017, before achieving back-to-back victories from 2021 to 2024. Then the Lakers struck.
Their winding journey to the top redefined the meaning of resilience, sacrifice, discipline, and belief for athletes.
Unlike in 2023, when their sponsor, RentCo Leasing Company, owned by Robert Nyasimi, hired a bus for them and paid for their accommodation in Blantyre, this time around, with no sponsorship, the Lakers had to use public transport for their week-long journey, which took them through Lusaka in Zambia to Harare.
The team left Nairobi on January 17, travelling via Dar es Salaam, where they spent a night, before proceeding to Zambia.
Just before reaching Tunduma, a town near the Zambian border, their bus broke down. They spent 16 hours there.
The journey continued through the Zambian capital, and the team of 24 players and coaches reached Harare on January 23, one day before their opening match.
Lakers Hockey Club players Stacy Chentry Achieng (left) and Elizabeth Odhiambo Awuor pose with the Women’s Africa Cup of Club Championships trophy they won after they beat Ghana Revenue Authority in the final in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Photo credit: Pool
As the team travelled to Harare, their patron, Robert Ekhaya, left Johannesburg, where he is based, with a truck loaded with food and other items for the team to use in Zimbabwe.
The Lakers lost 2-0 to the defending champions, but recovered to beat the home teams Hippo (4-1) and Bulawayo (3-0) before their final match against GRA.
GRA took the lead through Elizabeth Opoku, who scored from a penalty corner, but Faith Amondi equalised to force a thrilling penalty shoot-out. Lakers’ keeper Maureen ‘Archie’ Achieng stopped four shots. She was later named player of the final.
Achieng and Debra Otieno scored for the Lakers, and captain Alice Owiti was named player of the tournament.
Owiti reckoned that the combined challenges, which included long road journeys and vehicle breakdowns, strengthened their unity, mental toughness and resolve to win.
The team travelled 355km from Kisumu to Nairobi, then 823km to Dar es Salaam, and finally 2,436km to Harare.
“We have been vindicated, and it means everything we went through wasn’t in vain. After the challenges, the doubts and the ban, this victory proves our character and resilience as a team,” Owiti said.
“This victory feels incredibly special and emotional. This title means a lot, not just to the Lakers, but to Kenyan hockey too. The win also validates the hard work we have put in over the years and shows that Kenyan hockey can still compete at continental level,” she added.
Owiti added that conquering the continent had required immense sacrifice, discipline and belief.
“Most of our players live outside Kisumu, yet they consistently sacrificed their time and comfort, and even their work commitments, to attend training, despite the long distances,” she explained.
Owiti noted that the ban had thrown them off balance during the 2024 season, as it had affected all their senior players and the entire management team.
After the ban, Ekhaya said they had to rebuild quickly. They recruited high school players just to keep the team in the league and avoid relegation. The young players fought hard and managed to finish third from the bottom.
“We avoided relegation, which was great,” he said.
