David Munyua, the 30-year-old veterinarian from Kabati town in Murang’a County, found newness at the Alexandra Palace and brought freshness to the 2026 Professional Darts Corporation World Darts Championship, the 33rd edition of the world’s premier darts competition.
The Alexandra Palace, affectionately nicknamed “Ally Pally,” is an entertainment and sports venue in London. It has hosted every PDC World Darts Championships since 2008 after the competition’s venue switched from the Circus Tavern in Essex, England.
Munyua’s march to the Ally Pally has been a journey of over 1,000 days. He threw his first dart three years ago and the sharp-pointed projectile pierced the dartboard like a golden Cupid’s arrow. An obsession with playing darts was born in him that day.
“That moment gave me an uncontrollable urge to keep playing darts. I immediately bought darts equipment and I started practising,” Munyua told James Wokabi and Elijah Ouko during an interview on SportOn! in November. SportOn! is the NTV sports talk show which airs every Monday night.
Kenya's Darts trailblazer Munyua speaks
“I did not know of darts competitions until my friend Joseph Kamanda told me about them. I only got to understand how to score in darts when I appeared in my first competition in Runyenjes, Embu,” Munyua, whose favourite checkout is the double 16 and has a penchant for aiming for the bull’s eye with his first throw, added.
After days and nights of throwing darts in his house and at local, regional, and continental competitions, Munyua qualified for the competition after defeating Cameron Carolissen from South African 8-6 in the finals of the African qualifiers held in Nairobi in September.
Before Munyua, the Ally Pally had never witnessed a performance by a Kenyan darts player. But on Thursday afternoon, Munyua ensured that the world will never forget the moment a Kenyan debuted at the Ally Pally. The world loves a daring underdog and with a first name like David, Munyua did not divert from the biblical script when he faced the Belgian Mike De Decker.
De Decker, also 30, stood before Munyua with credentials that towered over the unranked Kenyan debutant ahead of their First Round contest. De Decker, nicknamed ‘The Real Deal’, is the Belgian number one and the world number 18.
Yet, it was Munyua who answered the call for the Second Round with a performance that did justice to his nickname – ‘Whynot’.
Munyua came from behind to send De Decker homeward with a 3-2 victory. De Decker had won the first two sets but after that, the best only came from Munyua. Still, Munyua’s period of dominance was not without theatrics. He provided comedy beyond the imagination of creative thespians who have staged plays at the Ally Pally.
His first comical act was a moment that left him feeling foolish. With him and De Decker tied on 2-2 in the third set, Munyua was on the verge of winning his first set, but a miscount saw him check out with 125 instead of 135. He palmed his face in shock and despair at his folly. At that moment
Munyua was staring at elimination as defeat in that leg would have won De Decker his third set and hence a 3-0 win in the best-of-five sets contest.
Yet, Munyua’s blunder offered De Becker no lifeline. The Belgian still had 183 remaining on the board, meaning he needed more than one round to check-out his score. The maximum number of points a darts player can score in a round is 180 and De Decker only managed to reduce his tally to 102.
It did not matter. De Decker threw his next dart in the fourth set. Munyua returned to the board with surgical precision. His one-dart finish – a double five – won him that decisive leg and, his first ever set at the Ally Pally.
Yet, Munyua was not done with the theatrics, producing a second comical act which was later hailed as ‘aura’.
A wasp had landed on his face, perhaps telling him that there is more than can bite a novice at the Ally Pally. Yet, Munyua did not flinch. His career as a veterinarian kicked in with a homing instinct for animals and insects. He felt the wasp needed a better home and he removed it from his face and put it in his pocket.
The official X feed of PDC announced the moment in uppercase, saying he had killed the “Ally Pally wasp” but the cameras had lied to them.
David Munyua during an interview with NTV on November 17, 2025.
Photo credit: Pool
“I took the wasp and put it in my pocket while telling it, ‘let’s do this together’,” Munyua later told PDC media. “After my win, I released the wasp to spread the good news,” Munyua added.
The image of the wasp quickly became a meme, with PDC media riding on it. “Aura,” they said on their X feed in their caption of that image.
With the wasp in his pocket, Munyua won the fourth and the fifth set, thrusting him to global fame. X was abuzz with excitement of his victory, with some crowning him “The People’s Champion”.
President William Ruto, late to the news after an evening of handing over affordable housing units at Mukuru Kwa Njenga, congratulated Munyua on his performance and urged him to bring the trophy home.
“We are proud of you,” Irungu Kangata, the Governor of Murang’a County, where Munyua is from, posted on X.
Tom Brown, the CEO of Winmau, a company that manufactures dartboards, met Munyua after his victory. “That was amazing,” Brown told Munyua. Winmau sponsored Munyua’s trip to the UK.
Larry Madowo, the CNN international correspondent, was also awestruck. “I didn’t know about David Munyua before this and now I’m obsessed!,” Madowo posted on X.
Some Kenyan fans took to social media to criticise the government for failing to support Munyua before and during championship.
Munyua’s performance was labeled the biggest upset in the history of the competition and SkyBet, a British betting firm, provided context on the scale of that giant-killing act. SkyBet expressed its shock at Munyua’s historic win with emojis of the Kenyan flag, a bull’s eye, a mind blown away, and flames.
“What a result. David Munyua was 100/1 to win against Mike De Decker. 23 fans backed Munyua,” they said on X.
Whoever backed Munyua to defeat De Decker on SkyBet had their stake multiplied 100 times. Those 23 punters were not the only ones to benefit from Munyua’s victory.
Devon Petersen, a South African who holds the record of most appearances by an African at the Ally Pally with nine, had a video call with Munyua after his victory. Petersen informed Munyua that his victory won £1,200 (Sh206,800) for a charity in Kenya. “£100 (Sh17,230) was donated to a charity in Kenya for every leg you won,” Petersen told Munyua in a video shared on X by AndyRobsonTips.
Bringing home the trophy will see Munyua cash a colossal £1,000,000 (Sh171 million) in prize money. So far, his First Round win guarantees him £25,000 (Sh4.3 million) per the competition’s prize money structure.
The 33rd edition of the PDC World Darts Championship is the biggest yet with a record prize money pool of £5,000,000 (Sh853 million) and record number of competitors, 128. The winner’s prize money is also a competition record. It is double what English teenager Luke Littler – the competition’s youngest ever winner – earned for winning last year’s edition.
The prize money per round is as follows: First Round losers (£15,000 – Sh2.58 million), Second Round losers (£25,000 – Sh4.3 million), Third Round losers (£35,000 – Sh6 million), Fourth Round losers (£60,000 – Sh10.3 million), Quarter-final losers (£100,000 – Sh17.1 million), Semi-final losers (£200,000 – Sh34.2 million), Runner-up (£400,000 – Sh68.4 million), and winner £1,000,000 (Sh171 million).
Against De Decker, Munyua competed with swagger and vigour that matched his entry. He walked to oche brushing his shoulders and surfing his arms as he danced. It was a walk fortified with acts of brotherhood and patriotism. Sofiya Nzau’s Mwaki was the song that escorted Munyua to his date with destiny at the oche.
Along that walk, Munyua stopped to have a word with Peter Wachiiuri, another Kenyan top darts player who missed featuring at the Ally Pally by a whisker last year.
Wachiiuri handed Munyua a pack of darts and words of good luck – a final act of comradeship before Munyua ventured to battle Belgium’s finest.
“I have never been in this kind of a venue before. The noise… the pressure… the wasp… I got one and it ran away. I think the second round will be easier for me,” Munyua later told PDC media after he had sent De Decker homeward.
Munyua will return to the Ally Pally on Monday for his Second Round contest against a yet-to-be-determined opponent. It will not be new to him again but the People’s Champion will have the crowd behind him and hopefully the Ally Pally wasp as a good luck charm for another giant-killing performance.
