Thunder is a shining example for potential sports investors

The Kenyan sporting space is an interesting space, and I say interesting more on the negative side. My take on Kenya is that it is perhaps the only African country that has a dominant athlete/ team in more than two sporting disciplines.

Moreover, the Kenyan athlete is naturally a very athletic person, with the only challenge being the technical aspect of sports, something that should be inculcated in them at a very young age. The biggest problem within the Kenyan sports industry however, is an exit strategy. What do I mean by an exit strategy? Kenya is not short on the talent being churned out of high schools. However, there is no job market to absorb this talent.

This is purely down to governance issues, with the federations bearing most of the brunt on this. Government has a role to play from a policy standpoint especially in making the industry viable for investors, but little to no work has been done in the past. I am a big proponent of not complaining about the situation every day, and finding a way to at least start fixing the problem, and the next story has been a very beautiful one.

On November 29 last year, the entire Kenyan basketball fraternity was focused on five-time NBA champion Ron Harper accompanying the NBA Africa team to open the Kenya office. Ron Harper and the NBA Africa team were at State House to pay a courtesy call on President William Ruto, whose office has been very supportive of NBA Africa’s efforts in opening the Nairobi office. However, something else was also happening in the Kenyan basketball landscape.

The founder of Twende Basketball ( and by extension Twende Sports Limited) and his management team had paid a courtesy call on US Ambassador Meg Whitman. On her twitter handle, Ambassador Whitman acknowledged the efforts of the Twende management team in trying to revolutionalize the Kenyan basketball space and by extension, the Kenyan sports space. But few know where this story comes from.

In the 13 or so years I have been trying to get sports to be perceived as a business by the investment community and corporate Kenya, I always felt that the breakthrough in this field would happen when either a foreigner or an expatriate took the risk and invested in a sports team. Kenyans naturally tend to invest in either tangible property or in sectors where they have seen other people invest and make money.

From beginning of 2020, I had slowly begun to realize that I was not going to be in law practice for more than another five years. I knew that I wanted to work in sports and on the business end of sports, essentially what is known as a sports executive. In early 2023, the decision was made and I got in to sports fully after 12 years of law practice.

Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I would find myself at the gym during odd hours (between 1 pm and 3 pm) and on one of those occasions, I got talking with the physiotherapist. She was keen to understand what it is I saw in the sports space and how I intended to go about it. About two weeks later, she dropped me a text “Hey, there is this American guy who is planning on acquiring a basketball team in Nairobi. I think you should meet him as you will be able to provide him with some great insights”. So I asked her to set the meeting up, and the next week I met “the American guy” at a Nairobi restaurant.

Colin Rasmussen is an American who has lived out of USA more than he has lived there. He was brought up in Pakistan and for the last 11 years, he has lived in Nairobi, Kenya. We sat down for two hours talking about the plans he had for his Twende Street League basketball team as well as his plans to acquire the Nairobi City Thunder. Naturally being American, his passion for basketball was unmatched. He had joined various local social basketballs groups and still plays the game.

In the 11 years he has lived in Kenya, he realised that there was a gap in investment in sports. While there were extenuating circumstances like state of facilities, poor governance structures of federations and sporting organisations, he knew that even in the grey area that sports was in, there was still a possibility that would allow him to invest in a basketball team with eventual returns, like any other normal investment.

Fully-fledged secretariat

He offered to pay me a retainer to help him develop the business model for his team as well as help him navigate our regulatory and compliance space which is still amateur driven, and I agreed. That one meeting turned into weekly meetings and he slowly introduced me to his management team. There was one thing different with these guys; they believed in what they were doing and they were fully invested in this project. A special mention goes out to Sandra Kimokoti ,Stephen Domingo and Kooshin Diriye. who have been at Colin’s side throughout this journey and this can only get better.

We had breakfast and lunch meetings discussing potential investors and sponsors for the Thunder team, we went to Kigali together in May 2023 for the Basketball Africa League finals, then came back and had more meetings about the plan to get Thunder to qualify for the Basketball Africa League and the impact that his investment would have on the whole basketball team.

Colin was deliberate about the Nairobi City Thunder being a business and a fully professional team. Although there were some hiccups in the acquisition process, Colin and his team finally managed to get all the paper work going and there we had it, Twende Sports Limited acquired the operations of Nairobi City Thunder and they were not looking back…They have since hired American Bradley Ibs as their Head Coach and put together an impressive coaching roster of Collins Gaya, Deng Garang and Rose Mshila.

They then made some impressive trades notably work horse Ariel Okal partnering up with old guards like Griffin Ligale and some new blood in the team. Off they went to work. As we speak, the Nairobi City Thunder has played 11 games and won all 11 games, and this is just the beginning. They have professional contracts with all the players on their roster being paid a salary to do their work, play basketball. Thunder has a backroom staff that helps the people on the court achieve their goals. This team comprises of a general manager, a team manager, a marketing and communications manager, a lawyer, and they intend to increase their staff complement when the money allows them to do so. In short, anyone who works for the Thunder organisation is on a professional contract that outlines their role in the organisation and of course, their remuneration.

What Colin Rasmussen and his team of investors has done is put together some money as they have realised that sports can be an asset class. They have acquired a local team and solid talent that is on professional contracts. Thunder’s players have set goals in line with their contracts and the team’s overall strategy and they are required to meet each and every one of their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) if they are to continue being a part of the team.

Thunder already had an existing fan base because let us face it, there is only so much to do in Nairobi in terms of entertainment, with virtually a non-existent sports entertainment culture. Their home games were already attracting a decent crowd as Colin had already built the vibe around it, but the truth is that if they can keep up their performance, one thing is certain, Thunder games are about to get full and with the already existing vibe at the games, the atmosphere will be electric.

Policy changes

The biggest takeaway for me is that what Colin and team have done is definitely going to raise the level of competition in the game, but this can only happen if we have more people like him willing to take the risk and believe that sports is indeed an asset class. In the end, it can only be good for sports if we get more private resources in to sports.

The question then is what needs to happen in Kenya for more investment in the sports space. Firstly, we need the investment community to be open-minded to risk and do some thorough research on sporting organisations and their financials. All these organisations ( at least the properly run ones) have audited financials that are up to date. Most of these organisations break even year on year, which begs the question, what could happen if they get a much needed shot in the arm with a properly set out governance structure, emulating best practices in Africa and the rest of the world?

Secondly, the government of the day needs to be deliberate to lead this conversation through policy revamp and sensitisation of the business community. In recent research that I was conducting, I came across the fact that the Greek parliament passed a bill in 1979 that stated that football clubs should be converted into football incorporated companies, amongst other incentives. This resulted in massive investments in the Greek football scene by the business community, making football a professional industry and profitable business.

The examples are there, in Africa and the rest of the world. It is time for us to wake up and smell the coffee, as our neighbours have caught up and are slowly overtaking us. If there is no deliberate action on our end, our neighbours will leave us behind, never to be caught again.

The writer is a sports executive and CEO of The Sports Consulting Agency.