The Kenya  Male Senior National football team is called Harambee Stars. And while many may argue that a name has nothing to do with success or failure on the pitch, a case can be made that it actually does. In the current era of marginal gains, small details are what ultimately make a difference.  You see, in the realm of sports, a team’s nickname is not merely a label; it is a psychological banner. It is the first line of attack or defense that inflicts mental terror upon the opponent. When our national team steps onto the pitch as the " Harambee Stars"   they are carrying a name that, is fundamentally ill-suited for the ruthless, competitive arena of modern international football. In sports, names are designed to project power, speed, dominance, or ferocity. Look across the African continent and you will find a savanna of formidable entities :   The Indomitable Lions  of Cameroon,  the Super Eagles  of Nigeria,  the Teranga Lio...

Let me just say it off the bat; there is no football club in Kenya more successful than Gor Mahia. Gor Mahia has won the Kenya Premier League a record 21 times and 10 times in the last 14 years. Gor Mahia is the first and so far still the only football club from Kenya to have won a continental title. Perhaps that's why Gor Mahia fans fondly refer to their team as "the husband of teams" .  A husband because it protects and provides. In an African homestead there may be many wives but there must only be one husband and that one man, that husband, in Kenyan football arena is Gor Mahia. Gor Mahia is not the richest football club in Kenya, it is not even the oldest. It is just the most dominant, the most successful. People may argue about opinions and preferences all they want but there's nothing that can be taken away from winning 21 league titles. Gor Mahia's storied rivalry with Abaluhya Football Club Leopards Sports Club, better known as AFC Leopards, is perhaps t...

 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 energetic; 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 may not have been known to many even though  millions of Kenyans were entertained by his work. But to the few who knew him, Albert Mutuli Kenyatta was without a doubt the best lead/solo guitarist Kenya has ever produced. His unique guitar playing style was high on energy, producing danceable and rhythmic, intricate, fast-paced, and interlocking melodic line...

 Listening to Musa Juma's tracks one quickly realizes that he knew some Lingala (Lingala is a Language, not a genre of music). It is however difficult to tell exactly how much Lingala Musa Juma could speak. Can we be able to tell how much Lingala Language Musa Juma knew by analyzing the lyrics of his songs? We hope we can make a pretty solid estimation. Musa Juma was a Luo from Kenya and there is no evidence that he ever lived, worked in or even visited either of the two Congo republics where Lingala is predominantly spoken. But we also know that a visit or stay in a country is not the only way to interact with a language. From a face-value analysis of Musa Juma's lyrics it is evident that he could at least mumble a few Lingala words. For a person who worked with and lived amongst mainly Congolese immigrants in Kenya for most of his adult life, it should come at no surprise that he would try singing in the language. The Lingala language is held to a rather higher esteem i...

 If you had read that headline just two years ago you would certainly have asked, "Are you kidding me?". But the truth is, this year is not 2022, and no, I'm not kidding you. It is the worst kept secret in Kenya today but the former prime minister of Kenya and the current President are working on a political alliance, that is sure to shake the country. No one saw it coming. It wasn't meant to happen. The whole of Mount Kenya political establishment has worked their asses off to keep it from happening, but it is now sure to happen. The only question is when But how did we get here? We have to go back - way back - to 2007 to get to the genesis of it all. 2007 seems like a long time a ago, but the events that transpired pre- and post- the general elections of that year still cast a dark shadow on Kenya's political future. The seeds of madness sown during that dark chapter of Kenya's history have grown into a giant tree under whose canopy the current and future po...

Whenever the Kenya national football team (Harambee Stars) loses a game, many Kenyans are quick to call them names like "Luo Fc", "Omena United", "Jaruo team (sic)", "Kisumu boys" etc. And there are yet others who are quick to point out that the team doesn't represent the face of the country. These allegations resurface over and over again on social media but many people just brush them aside as not deserving of any attention. Those who attempt a reply only point out that national teams are not "constitutional offices" and therefore the representation of every region of the country is not required by law. But on the back of the Four Nations Tournament held in Malawi in 2024, these allegations became too loud to be ignored. Maybe there really is unfairness in team selection in Kenyan football after all. Maybe Luos and Luhyas are unjustifiably favoured. Let's dig in deep into this. Looking at the Harambee stars squad - both senio...