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'Kempes' can clean our football but must be ready to play rough
Former Harambee Stars players Sammy Owino "Kempes" (left), Samy Shollei (right), and former Harambee Starlets player, Charity Wangoma, Director of Bondeni Football Women Club men and women teams, and other football officials from Rift Valley Region, during a meeting held in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County on May 29, 2023. Owino donated footballs and training kits to 14 football teams.
What you need to know:
- The current generation of Kenyan football fans may not know much about Kempes, but the older generation of K’Ogalo fans, just like Omulo Okoth, have never stopped waxing lyrical about this player.
- Priority areas in his blueprint include building football infrastructure across the board through youth and women football development, coaching education, player scouting as well as revamping the leagues and national teams structures.
- Just like in the case of holders of political offices, Kenyans have a penchant for electing the wrong people to run sports.
My one-time editor, Omulo Okoth, describes the legendary Gor Mahia player Sammy ‘Kempes’ Owino as the one player who during his heyday gave football fans real value for their money and time inside the stadium. The veteran sports journalist doesn’t stop there. He proclaims Kempes the best thing that ever happened to Gor Mahia and the Kenyan national team Harambee Stars before he hung up his boots.
Those were many years ago. Precisely between 1978 and 1982, I’m reliably informed. The current generation of Kenyan football fans may not know much about Kempes, but the older generation of K’Ogalo fans, just like Omulo Okoth, have never stopped waxing lyrical about this player.
