Why I’m rooting for Mathare United to survive relegation

When the history of Kenyan football is finally written, a certain Bob Munro will deserve to have at least one chapter rightfully reserved for him.

Munro, who has his roots in Canada, is synonymous with Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), a sports development aid organisation in Nairobi’s Mathare slum that gave rise to Kenyan Premier League side Mathare United.

But MYSA and Mathare United is not what defines this man Munro. His influence and contribution to the growth and development of Kenyan football transcends the fringes of the densely populated crime-prone ghetto.

At the turn of the century, when poor leadership, massive corruption and astonishing levels of un-accountability was choking life out of Kenyan football, it was Munro and a few daring souls who coalesced and fought bitterly for the heart and soul of the Kenyan game.

Kenyan football pulled through that disturbing comatose phase and the Kenyan Premier League (KPL), as we know it today, was born.

Through MYSA, a pet project which he has managed for decades, Munro has also left indelible footprints on the sands of time in a way that no other youth sports development programme in the country has managed to do.

Many successful football careers of the present and past in Kenya were nurtured at MYSA.

The roll of honour at MYSA is quite impressive. It includes the likes of former Harambee Stars head coach and current Wazito FC tactician Francis Kimanzi and David Ouma, who until recently was Harambee Starlets head coach.

Also in this list is Doreen Nabwire, who made history as Kenya’s first professional female football player in the Bundesliga and of course the biggest of them all, Dennis Oliech, who needs no introduction here or anywhere else, for that matter.

There are many other great players and tacticians who over the years have come through MYSA’s conveyor belt. In a word, MYSA is a sports development behemoth that has turned the dreams of many talented youngsters in the poverty-stricken Mathare slum into reality.

For the record, I neither know Munro in person nor have I ever met him in person. But four weeks ago, I received some very interesting feedback from this man in the form of a compliment for a story I wrote on this column about football teams with horrible names.

“I enjoyed your Dandora Love FC riff this morning. So I thought you’d enjoy these MYSA youth team names in 1988. To be a top football player requires mental strength and agility. So one of my favourites is the last one: Mathare Mental FC,” Munro’s brief email read.

Attached to the email was a pdf document titled “1998 Special MYSA Youth Team Names”.

Some of the interesting names in the list include Bash Street Boys FC – a much dreaded side, according to Munro – Lucky Strikers FC, Machuma Sportiff FC and Mashteam FC, a team that was apparently made up of players from a neigbourhood which was infamous for drug taking and dealings.

Also attached to Munro’s email was a pdf document of a newspaper article with a profile of Football Kenya Federation Premier League Manager, David Thiru, a corporate highflyer with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Strategic Management, who also happens to be a MYSA alumnus.

In sum, MYSA’s contribution to the development of Kenyan football is unquantifiable, for lack of a better word.

Which is why my heart goes out to MYSA’s most eminent offshoot, Mathare United, who are currently battling relegation in the Premier League. My wish is to see Mathare staying afloat just for the sake of MYSA’s legacy, if not for anything else.

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