Nothing is so humbling and satisfying in life as a father walking the journey of life with his children, holding their hands through their sporting careers, and later watching them excel at the highest level.
Former Harambee Stars and AFC Leopards winger Noah Wanyama, former Harambee Stars striker and captain Mike Okoth Origi, former volleyball player Musa Mulah, and Wilfred Emonyi belong to this distinguished category of fathers who have bequeathed Kenya talented athletes who have gone on to conquer the world in their respective disciplines.
Noah Wanyama in training with his Nzoia Sugar players in 2001, the year they won the Premier League. Wanyama coached the club between 1999-2002. Photo I File
Musa Mulah Masayi from Mumias in Kakamega County is the father of Madina Okot, the first Kenyan woman to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association in the US. Noah Wanyama is the father of McDonald Mariga, who became the first Kenyan to win the UEFA Champions League title while playing for Inter Milan in 2010, and his sibling Victor Wanyama, who became the first Kenyan to score a goal in the UEFA Champions League while playing for Scottish giants Celtic FC in 2012.
Victor Wanyama.
Photo credit: File | Nation
Wilfred Emonyi is the father of Kenyan rugby stars Humphrey Kayange, Collins Injera, and Michael Agevi. Former Harambee Stars captain Mike Okoth is the father of Belgian football star Divock Origi, who won the UEFA Champions League title with Liverpool in 2019.
This International Father’s Day, Nation Sports celebrates these fathers for successfully juggling fatherhood and playing a leading role in developing the careers of their children in different ways.
Noah, who played for the two teams between the 1960s and 1980s, successfully guided his children to some of the most successful sportsmen and women in the country, with two of them following in his footballing footsteps.
Perhaps the most prominent, who was known for his powerful left-footed shots and free-kick prowess, are former Harambee Stars captains, MacDonald Mariga and Victor Wanyama, and professional basketballer, Mercy Wanyama. Mariga, who is Noah’s eldest son with the late Mildred, a former netball international, made history as the first Kenyan footballer to play in and win the prestigious UEFA Champions League with the reigning 21-time Italian champion, Inter Milan, in 2010 under Portuguese coach, José Mourinho.
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) vice president McDonald Mariga when he appeared before the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Sports and Culture at Bunge Tower in Nairobi on May 5, 2026.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Mariga, the Kamukunji High School alumnus, who won national school titles with his school in 2002 and 2003 alongside another Kenyan legendary striker, Dennis Oliech, went on to emerge as a dominant, physically imposing defensive midfielder in Europe.
Mariga, whose local journey cut across Premier League sides Ulinzi Stars, Tusker FC, and Kenya Pipeline, scaled the heights to Europe in 2005, where he joined Swedish side Enköpings SK and then Helsingborgs IF.
That set the stage for his historic move to Italy in 2007, where he joined top Serie A side Parma after work permit gremlins ended his move to English Premier League side Portsmouth.
Another work permit challenge curtailed Mariga’s move to Manchester City when the transfer window opened in January 2010, but Mourinho would snap him up for Inter Milan.
That saw Mariga make history as the first Kenyan to feature in the Champions League as he went on to win the historic continental treble under Mourinho, claiming the Serie A, Coppa Italia, and the Champions League crowns. They beat Bayern Munich from Germany 2-0 in the final, the last time the team lifted the Champions League title.
Mariga went back to Parma before joining Spanish La Liga’s Real Sociedad and later Italian side Latina in Serie B and Spanish Segunda División side Real Oviedo.
Mariga, who retired in 2019 with 40 international caps, having played for Harambee Stars since 2003, has been the Football Kenya Federation vice president since December 2024.
Victor, nicknamed “The Lion of Muthurwa,” played for Nairobi Coty Stars and AFC Leopards between 2006 and 2010 before signing for Scottish giants Celtic in 2011. In 2012, Victor guided Celtic to a stunning 2-1 victory against Barcelona 2-1 in a Champions League tie, scoring one of the goals through a header, making him the first Kenyan to score in the Champions League.
He became the first Kenyan to play in the English Premier League when he joined Southampton in 2013 before signing for Tottenham Hotspur in 2016. He went on to lead the side to a second-place finish in the English Premier League, their best ever finish in 2016-2017.
Victor played for Harambee Stars from 2007 at just 15 and went on to earn 64 international caps before retiring this year, having played for Canadian top side CF Montréal since 2020. Victor has transitioned into coaching and is in the process of acquiring a UEFA coaching badge in addition to branding.
Former Kenyan international Mike Okoth Origi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
For Okoth, his son Divock Origi owes much of his football success to him. With the prestigious English Premier League, UEFA Champions League and FA Cup winners’ medals to his name, there is no doubt that Origi’s career, which spans almost two decades, was successful.
“My purpose in the game as a player is fulfilled,” Origi wrote on Instagram on June 8 when he announced his retirement from professional football. Starting his football career as a goalkeeper before converting to a striker, Okoth enjoyed a professional career that spanned from the 1980s to 2006.
Having left Kenya in 1992 in pursuit of a professional career abroad, Okoth spent most of his club career in Belgium, where he represented several teams, including KRC Genk, KV Oostende, Molenbeek and Tongeren.
He was part of Kenya’s squad that competed at the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in 1990, 1992 and 2004.
Born in Ostend, Belgium, on April 18, 1995, every step that Origi made in his football career was through the guidance of his father.
Liverpool's Belgian striker Divock Origi chases the ball during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on March 2, 2016. PHOTO| AFP
For instance, it was Okoth’s decision for Origi to leave home at a tender age of 15 to join France’s Lille academy. “The first priority was his (Divock’s) development. France takes a lot of interest in developing players. They have coaches who constantly work with youngsters to realise their full potential, and I knew France was the best place to be,” Okoth told Nation Sport in July 2014.
Alongside other members of the family, Okoth often attended matches featuring Origi to cheer him up. Together with Origi’s two sisters, Okoth was in attendance when the striker scored the all-important goal that fired Belgium to the last 16 round of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Reflecting on his son’s display after the match, Okoth said then: “We tried to give him the best upbringing, and as parents it’s great seeing your child hit such heights.” In the previous interview with Nation Sport, Okoth also attributed his son’s meteoric rise in football to the utmost discipline, which they instilled in him during his upbringing. “For us as a family, discipline is paramount. It is the same virtues that we instilled in Divock. In football, you can never make it far unless you behave well,” Okoth noted then.
Madina Okot celebrates as the South Carolina Gamecocks secure their place in the NCAA Women’s Final Four for a sixth consecutive year during the 2026 March Madness tournament.
Photo credit: Pool
Mulah is the father of Madina Okot, who in April became the first Kenyan woman selected in the first round of the WNBA Draft after being picked 13th overall by the Atlanta Dream. Seeing his fifth-born daughter now playing in the prestigious WNBA is a dream come true for him, especially given that his own ambition to build a future around volleyball was cut short in August 1994.
Having played competitively in Nairobi after leaving school, Mulah believed he was on the verge of something bigger. Instead, he was ordered to choose a different path. His father wanted him to abandon volleyball, return home, get married and focus on raising a family.
More than 30 years later, sitting outside his home in Mundubi village in Kakamega County, Mulah still remembers the heartbreak.
“I cried for a week, seeing my career going to waste. My father told me never to play the game and that I should get married and settle down. I was not happy with that decision, but there was nothing I could do,” he says quietly.
But unknown to him, it would later be reborn through his children.
After marrying Jacqueline Nakhumicha in August 1994, Mulah settled into family life. Over the years, the couple raised eight children, a responsibility that often stretched their finances. There were school fees to pay, food to put on the table and basic needs to meet. Like many rural Kenyan parents, Mulah relied on odd jobs and casual labour to support his household.
At their home in Mumias, Kakamega County, Musa Mulah Masayi, father to rising basketball star Madina Okot, shares insights into her remarkable journey during an interview with Nation Sport on April 16, 2026.
Photo credit: Alex Odhiambo | Nation
The experience taught him one lesson: children needed guidance more than fear. Having experienced the pain of being forced to abandon something he loved, Mulah was determined to become a different kind of parent.
He chose conversation over violence, encouragement over intimidation and patience over punishment. “As a parent, I have never laid my hand on my children. I just warn them and explain their wrongdoings. I tell them the reality,” he says.
Years earlier, he had watched his own sporting ambitions disappear. He was determined not to watch the same thing happen to hers.
Mississippi State University successfully facilitated Madina’s move to the United States, opening the door to opportunities she had spent years pursuing.
The father who once feared his daughter’s dreams might be slipping away watched her flourish on one of the world’s biggest sporting stages.
She later transferred to the University of South Carolina, emerged as one of the leading rebounders in college basketball and helped the Gamecocks reach the NCAA championship game.
Today, whenever people congratulate Mulah for raising a WNBA player, he returns to the lesson that has guided his life as a father.
“I feel very proud as a parent, and I would urge other parents to give their children a chance in sports. Sport is just as important as other disciplines,” he says.
The scenes at Europe’s undisputed home of rugby, Twickenham Stadium, will forever be etched in Wilfred Emonyi’s heart.
Two of his three rugby-playing sons, the elder Humphrey Kayange and Collins Injera, had flown Emonyi and their mother, Domitila, to witness the anticipated historic moments.
Emonyi’s other son, Michael Agevi, also played for Mwamba and the Kenya Sevens rugby team. The main focus at the 2016 London Sevens was on Injera, who was on the verge of achieving a milestone in the World Rugby Sevens, now World Rugby Division I.
Injera never disappointed as he scored against France in the pool matches to become the all-time World Rugby Sevens Series try-scorer with a record 231st career try, surpassing Argentina’s Santiago Gomez, 230 tries.
It was at the 2025 London Sevens where Injera scored his 200th try and proceeded to sign a ball and a camera lens to commemorate his achievement, not knowing the marker he used would permanently ruin the Sh 9 million camera lens.
Injera made his debut for Kenya Sevens in 2006 at the prestigious Dubai Sevens, and the rest is his history as he went on to emerge as the top-try scorer during the 2008/2009 World Rugby Sevens Series with 42 tries.
Injera played an integral role in Kenya’s historic victory at the 2016 Singapore Sevens, beating Fiji 30-7 in the final, which was their maiden victory in the World |Rugby Sevens Series.
It was dramatic in the semi-finals, where Collins Injera's penalty drop goal gave Kenya the lead for the first time in the match to seal a 15-12 win with the last kick. Injera was named Player of the Final. He represented Kenya in the Olympic Games in 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) and 2020 (Tokyo ) and retired in January 2023, after 17 remarkable years, leaving behind an unrivalled legacy, having also been inducted into the Melrose Sevens Hall of Fame in Scotland, the origin of sevens rugby.
Kayange, a Master graduate in Chemistry, Kayange helped Kenya Sevens reach two Rugby World Cup Sevens semi-finals, in 2009 where he was nominated player of the year, and 2013.
Kayange was elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission and as an IOC Member, as well as a Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) committee member.
Reported by Ayumba Ayodi, Domnick Ombok and Victor Otieno
