One evening in 1980, a friend and I drove to the Kenya Breweries Tusker Village at Ruaraka to meet friends and gossip football over a beer as we watched the players training.
The previous day, Breweries had beaten AFC Leopards in a tough league match at the City Stadium. The mood at the Village was upbeat. Moods at Ruaraka have traditionally been upbeat after matches against Gor and Leopards but wait till you see them after a game against Blue Triangle, their lowlyranked bogey team.
On that evening, happiness seemed everywhere among the inhabitants of Ruaraka. We were sitting at the clubhouse “Grand Stand” and the Breweries people kept agreeing with one another they were going to reclaim the title, which they had last won in 1978.
Amid the happy talk, Livingstone Madegwa, then a retired Breweries and Kenyan international, walked down the steps from somewhere up the clubhouse. My friend released his frothy mug and waved at him enthusiastically, saying: “Well done! You people played very well yesterday! Congratulations!”
Madegwa, his hands in the pockets, looked back gravely, gave a barely visible nod, and then continued on his way. When he was out of earshot, our host told my friend: “You have hurt him very much.” My friend was incredulous: “How?”
“You are congratulating him on the defeat of his team.”
My friend sipped his beer and said as he put the mug down: “I can’t understand. I thought this is his team. Breweries.”
“Not when it comes down to anything involving Leopards,” he was informed. “Oh, he is Leopards damu (blood). You don’t expect him to be happy when the team lost. Not even to us. He is Leopards.”
There followed a revealing discussion about some Breweries players being aligned to either Gor Mahia or Leopards. Much later at the Nyayo National Stadium, I had a lengthy chat with the brewers’ coach, Peter Odera.
He was frank and had his own ideas about why Breweries had been unable to win the national league lately.
“To like other clubs or players is normal in football,” he was saying. “It is not a problem. In my own case, I like Joe Masiga for several reasons.” For him, Breweries were not winning because of biased refereeing, nothing more.
Madegwa was thus excused his passion about AFC Leopards which I witnessed again at the Nairobi City Stadium when he was still at Breweries and AFC Leopards had signed winger Francis Kadenge, son of old Joe.
Breweries and AFC Leopards were contesting a league match. I was at the ‘Press Bench’ covering the game. Madegwa was standing not far from where I was. Next to him was old Joe who was silent throughout but his eyes never left the pitch. Madegwa was ecstatic about young Kadenge’s performance and kept on muttering words of praise to nobody in particular. That’s what caught my attention; I thought he should have been cheering Breweries.
When Francis made two or three good attempts at goal in quick succession, Madegwa said loudly to himself: “Wazi kabisa! Mtoto amerudi nyumbani!” (It’s all there! The child has returned home!” Madegwa, of course, meant Francis’ coming to AFC Leopards. He was very happy for Francis to beat “his team” Kenya Breweries.
Broadly speaking, all Luo players in Breweries were presumed to have loyalties to Gor Mahia based on their ethnicity. The same applied to Luhya players and AFC Leopards. But if this existed in their hearts, it was far from apparent when it came to action on the pitch. In fact, Breweries, which later re-branded into Tusker FC, is their joint worst nightmare. It has won the Kenyan Premiership 11 times, just one short of tying AFC Leopards’ tally of 12. Gor Mahia is much further away from them with 16 titles in their trophy cabinet.
The very birth of Tusker in November 1969 as Kenya Breweries Football Club represented one of the most traumatic experiences for Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards. Both clubs were forced to die a little – to borrow from the legendary pan-Africanist, Ahmed Ben Bella – so that Tusker could be born. Giving Gor and Leopards a hard time is thus mapped in Tusker’s DNA. It is an engaging story of a club that heralded a revolution in Kenya football.
New company policy couldn’t allow them to have it both ways. Heads won over hearts; they opted for their livelihoods. Overnight, Kenya Breweries FC became a giant – which it has been for the last nearly five decades. Late in December1969, the Caretaker Committee invited a West German amateur side, Westfalia, to tour Kenya. The scarcely month-old Breweries FC were given a shot at the visitors
Just about five years into independence, the young Kenya government had come to terms with the reality that the nation’s most popular game was a potent cocktail of witchcraft and tribalism. Players from different tribes in the national team couldn’t pass the ball to one another. Matches between clubs from different tribes often degenerated into tribal warfare. There was hardly a neutral referee, each official always seeking to give advantage to his tribesmen.
And all this in an environment where players sometimes saw snakes instead of balls on the pitch. In 1969, the six-year-old Government decided to make an intervention. Ronald Ngala, the minister responsible for sports, dissolved the Football Association of Kenya and appointed a caretaker committee to run the game and also make recommendations for long term resolutions.
The man appointed to head this committee was Jonathan Njenga. Out of the report of the Njenga Committee came a document known as the Yellow Book which, among a plethora of recommendations, suggested the way forward for Kenya lay in private companies forming tribe-neutral football clubs.
Kenneth Matiba, an avid outdoors man, sportsman, aggressive go-getter and general manager of Kenya Breweries Ltd, pounced on this report. It was a god-send. He immediately formed Kenya Breweries Football Club. In his memoirs, Aiming High: The Story of My Life, Matiba recollects:
“Kenya Breweries had among its employees a large number of players who played for Gor Mahia, Abaluhya Football Club and a few other smaller teams. It then appeared that in support of that government policy, Kenya Breweries could form its own football club with the existing players forming its nucleus. After consultations with a few people, I decided that we were going to form a football club. I made an announcement to that effect towards the end of 1969 and in January 1970, the Kenya Breweries Football Club (KBFC) came into being.”
This may sound like just another day in the office attending to routine administrative and strategic matters. But what actually took place was an earthquake at Gor Mahia and Abaluhya. Their players in Breweries’ employment were given the option of becoming Breweries FC players and keeping their jobs or keeping their clubs and losing their jobs.
New company policy couldn’t allow them to have it both ways. Heads won over hearts; they opted for their livelihoods. Overnight, Kenya Breweries FC became a giant – which it has been for the last nearly 50 years. Late in December 1969, the Caretaker Committee invited a West German amateur side, Westfalia, to tour Kenya. The scarcely month-old Breweries FC were given a shot at the visitors. They trained at the Kenya Institute of Education under coach Charles Mukora, who was also the national athletics coach at the time. In his younger days in the 1950s, Mukora played football for Kenya.
On January 1, 1970, Breweries played Westfalia at the Nairobi City Stadium. Westfalia won 2-1. But the Daily Nation report of the following day gave the new club a ringing endorsement – and a prophetic observation of the challenges that lay ahead for them in years to come.
“If Kenya Breweries are a fair specimen of the commercial sides which would eventually replace tribal clubs in Kenya’s major soccer tournaments, then the FA of Kenya Caretaker Committee should be congratulated for allowing Breweries to play this match.
“The West German provincial side were the better side in this encounter at Nairobi’s City Stadium but they had to fight all the way after finding themselves a goal down at half time before ending a tough challenge from a star-packed home side. Breweries showed that with more coaching and matches of this nature they could well be as attractive in the future as famous sides like Gor Mahia, Abaluhya and Kisumu Hot Stars.”
And then the caveat:
“But it’s the public that makes a success of soccer and judging from yesterday’s handful of spectators, it will take a good long while before commercial sides will be able to attract sell-out crowds like Abaluhya or Gor Mahia do.”
Has anything changed after more than four decades? To raise a decent crowd today, Tusker still needs to play Gor Mahia or AFC Leopards. Evidently, on matters tribalism, Kenyans have settled on a compromise – condemn it while practicing it. Breweries first year of existence was pure nightmare for Gor Mahia and Abaluhya. Reported the Daily Nation of November 3, 1970:
“Arthur Okwemba, the Kenya inside-right described by Kenya coach Eckhard Krautzun as the most talented forward in the country, has left Abaluhya to join Kenya Breweries. Okwemba has landed a job with the Breweries and like all the other soccer players working for them is expected to play for Breweries. He is the fourth Abaluhya star to sign for Breweries in the last 12 months and this will greatly weaken the Abaluhya side which about three years ago was rated the top club side in East Africa.”
The other international stars that Breweries had taken from Abaluhya were national captain John Nyawanga, full back Charles Makunda, midfielder Livingstone Madegwa and winger Henry Misango. From Gor decamped Samson Odore, Peter Odera and goalkeeper Francis Ooko. This unfettered poaching came at a price and Matiba acknowledges it in his book:
The decision (to go for Abaluhya and Gor) was not a very popular one among the officials and supporters of those other clubs but we had the support of the government and the caretaker committee. For quite some time, Kenya Breweries Football Club faced hostility even from the referees but eventually it came to be accepted as a force to reckon with in the game.
Some of the officials of those other clubs like Mahallon Danga, who was a long-serving secretary of Gor Mahia, were our employees and that helped us greatly.
Over the years, Breweries have flown Kenya’s flag high in the African continent, including reaching the Champions League semi-finals in 1973, and losing the Cup Winners Cup final in 1994. They also have six Cecafa Club Championships in their trophy cabinet. Breweries have given Kenya a galaxy of stars as bright as any from the clubs they were born of. AFC Leopards’ Joe Masiga and Gor Mahia’s Allan Thigo once embodied the greatness of their clubs.
For Tusker, the man who fills the bill is Ellie Adero. For almost 10 years, he was Harambee Stars Number One winger. He played on either left or right, with equal competence. Adero was stocky and had a propensity to put on weight. A handsome man with an engaging smile and pleasant character, he was easy to get along with.
But on the pitch, he was dead serious and his high-pitched voice could be heard even from the sidelines as he yelled orders and pleas to his team-mates. He had great speed. During Harambee Stars’ successful campaign in the 1981 Challenge Cup in Dar es Salaam, mesmerised Tanzanians nicknamed him charahani (sewing machine) because of his dazzling runs along the flanks.
Ellie Adero went on to captain the Stars and was the victorious skipper when they beat Zimbabwe 1-0 at Nyayo National Stadium during the 1983 final. He was Kenya Breweries’ backbone, graduating to become the successful coach who would take them to the Africa Cup Winners Cup final in 1994
He went on to captain the Stars and was the victorious skipper when they beat Zimbabwe 1-0 at Nyayo National Stadium during the 1983 final. He was Kenya Breweries’ backbone, graduating to become the successful coach who would take them to the Africa Cup Winners Cup final in 1994.
In a Tusker Football Club Roll of Honour, his name should easily be at the top. Such a roll would also inevitably include national team players of one time or the other, such as Joseph Oyando, Peter Odera, James Ojiambo, Douglas Mutua, Mohammed Magogo, Simon Gundi, Binzi Mwakolo, Issa Salim and Joseph Chanzu.