Nyawanga the unsung Kenyan hero

John Nyawanga was the first Kenyan to captain the national soccer team at the African Nations Cup finals.

His men prepared well, won their qualifying matches, and at the actual finals in 1972, played so relatively well that their record stands as the best, even after four other squads followed their trail.

Nyawanga has since then led a quiet working life away from football, but as Harambee Stars were on the verge of taking part in the Nations Cup finals last time - Tunisia 2004 - the former skipper begrudgingly granted an interview.

He felt proud of the boys heading to Tunisia. "I have no role of any sort in national football other than that when the team succeeds I am obliged to congratulate them on their efforts."

The 2004 team under Jacob "Ghost" Mulee, and good financial backing of Kenya Breweries, qualified comfortably with emphatic Group 5 victories over Togo, Cape Verde Islands and Mauritania. With nine goals scored against only two conceded in the qualifiers, it was the last time Kenyans saw a fine Harambee Stars that hit in goals and defended well.

On the eve of Mulee’s team’s trip to Tunisia , Nyawanga, the man who had set the tempo in 1972 said: 

"I can only wish them good luck. These are our wonderful boys. And if it counts for anything, I can tell them of how we played for this team; we were dedicated and never overawed by anyone on the pitch."

Nyawanga is a humble man who these days works at a sports goods shop on Kimathi Street, Nairobi, right opposite Nation Centre, the building which houses the newspapers, radio and television operations of the Nation Media Group.

The former Kenya soccer captain witnesses many prominent personalities, including current star sports persons, going in and out of the media house, for interviews and talk shows, but feels quite peaceful that hardly anyone on his street fusses about his footballing background.

"That (mine) was a different era and it’s time for others now. I have no craving for the limelight," he says.

In common with the rest of Kenyans, Nyawanga was excited about the prospects of Mulee’s team doing well in Tunisia and the former Kenya skipper demonstrated what a keen admirer of today’s national team members he is yet he does not feel he "owns" any right to the title l"egendary captain."

He looks at the brighter side of life and of his 1972 team saying he is more proud of how good the other players were rather than how he rated himself.

He goes down the list and picks on, for example Abaluhya’s Francis Khiranga. This indefatigable fullback started his international football while a student at the University College, Nairobi and later went on to an administration career in the Government’s Civil Service.

"Though little publicised," says Nyawanga, "Francis in my perspective should rank as one of Kenya’s all-time best. He was a very talented player; skillful, mature in attitude and very dedicated to the team’s cause whether at Mombasa’s Western Stars, Abaluhya or the national team, all greatly benefited from his input. He and his family now live abroad, Somwhere in Germany, I hear.

"These (Khiranga’s) were qualities found in those men who achieved the 1972 qualification and the ones who eventually had the honour to go to Cameroon.

"They included the defenders, young and diminutive Joram Roy of Bata Bullets and Ben Waga, who had just been drafted into the team from Western Stars (he was later to join Nyawanga at Kenya Breweries FC)."

The mainstays of the team during the qualifiers, and in the tournament in Cameroon - employing a 4-2-4 system - were: James Siang’a (Gor Mahia); Charles Makunda (Abaluhya); Francis Khiranga (Abaluhya); Daniel Anyanzwa (Abaluhya); Ben Waga (Breweries); Jonathan Niva (Abaluhya); Joram Roy (Bata Bullets); Samson Odore (Breweries); Paul Ndula (Kisumu Hot Stars); Kadir Farah (Feisal); Allan Thigo (Gor Mahia); Steve Yongo (Gor Mahia); Livingstone Madegwa (Breweries); Jackson Aluko (Luo Union); Peter Ouma (Gor Mahia); Joe Okeyo (Luo Union); William Chege Ouma (Gor Mahia); Ben Oballa (Hot Stars); Martin Ouma (Gor Mahia); David Asibwa (Abaluhya); Daniel Nicodemus (Gor Mahia); Arthur Okwemba (Abaluhya); John Chore (Gor Mahia); John Nyawanga (Breweries).

Nyawanga’s team altered the landscape of Kenya campaigns in Nations Cup football in a way that would chart the way for the future. Kenya’s first attempt at qualification was for the 1968 finals in Ethiopia followed by another failed effort to make the 1970 finals in Sudan.

But, always, when Kenya made it to four subsequent Nations Cup finals since the ’72 debut, the universal perception was that the Harambee Stars would be a soft touch for other teams.

Their record of successful attacking football reads as one goal scored in their 1-2 loss to Nigeria in 1992, and three in their 3-0 upsetting of Burkina Faso in 2004.

Current times are not altogether the happiest for Kenya football and not only on account of what has already happened in the campaign to qualify for Ghana 2008. 

On top of those crippling Harambee Stars defeats to Eritrea and Angola, local club sides are falling on the wrong side of the growing economic divide between the wealthier, more organised leagues of Africa and the poor ones run by messy national football associations like Kenya’s.

In the case of the national team, things were not always that gloomy. On the eve of their February 19 flight to Cameroon in ’72, Nyawanga’s team was upbeat. But because of a contractual dispute, their coach for the past two years, West German Eckhard Krautzun left Nairobi for home instead of heading out with the team.

It was influential defender Jonathan Niva who took up the role of player/coach. The "Simba wa Mayeye" held his head high, talking confidently. He said he was certainly not leading his team to slaughter.

The first match is always the worst. It will be like a Cup final to us. If we win it then we are confident we will have no difficulty getting to the final.

The team genuinely felt they had a chance of winning the Nations Cup on their first attempt and Niva told everyone that it depended on beating the hosts Cameroon on February 23, 1972 in Yaounde.

The belief came from their immediate previous virtuoso performances which had lifted the spirits of a nation.

Having clinched qualification by July, 1971- eliminating Ethiopia and Mauritius - Krautzun embarked on an ambitious programme to prepare for Cameroon.

He first fine-tuned the team into razor-sharp form at the East African Challenge Cup tournament which Kenya hosted in October 1971.

Before the first match Krautzun predicted Kenya would win the Cup easily and they did! 

Their performance suggested to the German that he should press ahead and do something special. He decided that Kenya’s preparation for Cameroon should include playing tip-top competition from Europe and he put his money where his mouth was.

Grasshoppers FC, the Switzerland champions, were the first to come calling. They played a three-match series against Kenya in Nairobi and Mombasa.

Next in were Denmark’s leading top league side, Vejle, whose last match of the series against Kenya was just five days before Harambee Stars left for Cameroon.

This was the basis of Niva’s supreme confidence when he said then: The matches against Grasshoppers and Vejle, apart from being invaluable practice, have given me a good indication of our current form.

Nyawanga recalled that they were armed with a ferociously competitive spirit and never shirked a challenge. But he pointed out that this was honed by some serious competition in friendly trial matches that these days are not availed to young players in Kenya.

Before the Grasshoppers and Vejle visit, Nyawanga noted that playing against quality European teams was not a strange thing for Kenyan players.

The then very strong English top division side, West Bromwich Albion complete with iconic centre forward Jeff Astle had earlier visited East Africa. West Brom had just won the FA Cup. Astle was warming up to travel with England to Mexico for the 1970 World Cup.

The West Brom seven-match East African itinerary was: v Dar es Salaam XI, Tanzania, Nairobi XI, Kenya, Kampala XI, Uganda and finally East Africa XI in Kampala.

The FA Cup champions lost to Dar es Salaam XI but beat everybody else before drawing 3-3 with the East Africa Select XI. 

There was also a tour by West Germany top club Eintracht Frankfurt featuring another iconic German star Jurgen Grabowski who went on to Mexico to showcase his skills at the 1970 World Cup. 

Soccer administrators in the Nyawanga days were apparently bold and original thinkers. They set their stall out by showing total confidence in their players and their (the officials’) own ability to make things move. The great lengths they went to see that the national team succeeded can perhaps these days be seen to have been preposterous.

But it also emphasised that nothing comes cheap and modern Kenya football has to invest in all spheres of the game.

Armed with the 1971 Challenge Cup title and the Grasshoppers/Vejle experience, Nyawanga’s men battled hard in Cameroon but lost their opening match 1-2 to the hosts. Further 1-1 draws to Mali and Togo respectively mathematically prevented them from making the semi-finals.

East African Challenge Cup matches, where the national team measured themselves and launched loftier international ambitions, were always fantastic and you could not dismiss the magnitude of that competition.

But these days we have a sniffy attitude towards the Challenge Cup. With such a serious lack of international matches can Kenya afford to be choosy? 

At a time of Harambee Stars' crashing decline the need to win the Challenge Cup is greater than ever. Later next month, if Kenya get special dispensation after the Fifa suspension, Tom Olaba will be taking the team into the competition. 

And while speculation about his coaching future swirl around, he should go in with the attitude that in life there are no hopeless causes, only setbacks. By lifting the Challenge Cup he would underline his expressed aspiration to take the team to greater heights.