There is no football club in Kenya more successful than Gor Mahia. Perhaps that's why Gor Mahia fans fondly refer to their team as "the husband of teams". Gor Mahia is the first and so far still the only football club in Kenya to have won a continental title. Their storied rivalry with Abaluhya Football Club Leopards Sports Club, better known as AFC Leopards, is perhaps the most lopsided rivalry in world football. AFC leopards stopped winning the Kenya Premier League during the late president Moi's era and has only beaten Gor Mahia once in a competitive game since 2015! This is not a rivalry anymore. Rivalries don't work this way. There is nothing Gor Mahia hasn't done. From winning the league title at the first time of asking in 1968, going whole seasons unbeaten, dominating the national team and winning four titles on the spin more than once, Gor Mahia has done it all. No wonder their rivals are green with envy. From the year 2013 to today Gor Mahia has he...
When I learned of the passing of Ali Pesa, the lead guitarist of John Junior's Beautiful Voices (BV) Band International, my reaction was that of shock and disbelief. It had been barely a month after I had met him at Downholm, Nairobi at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Frail and emaciated though he looked, he appeared happy and contented; wearing his usual dimpled smile. He had a guitar on his shoulder and was apparently going to perform at show in the area that evening. It therefore came as shock to me when I heard just a few months later that he had passed away in April, that very year (2020). Ali Pesa was without a doubt the best lead guitarist Kenya has ever produced. Unbeknown to many, Ali Pesa wasn't himself a Luo but played mainly in Luo bands. He was a Luhya by tribe but a Luo by choice. Colloquially called "Baba Tuzo/Tuso" and "Mbongo" his presence instantly transformed bands from hitherto unknown local pub groups to nationally acclaimed super ...