It has been a remarkable year for football lovers in Kenya. For the first time in more than 15 years Kenya national team Harambee Stars’ will play at the African Cup of Nations.
This is a landmark achievement for a country that has been underwhelming, killing the hopes of football fans who had even refused to go to the stadiums.
Harambee Stars’ improvements this year have even been recognized by CAF, who have nominated Kenya for the Africa Men’s team of the year award.
Even though, we are the least favorite among the six nominees to win the award, it show how far Kenyan football has come.
The year started on an embarrassing note, when the national team went down 2-1 to India in the Inter-continental cup in June. They had lost by 3-1 to the same opposition in the group. Harambee Stars became a butt of all jokes for losing to a country known for eating pilipili rather than soccer.
Earlier in the year, coach Paul Put had resigned, putting our preparations for AFCON qualifiers in dissaray. Everyone expected Kenya to carry home a bag of goals when West Africa giants Ghana came calling in September.
Not many people turned up at Kasarani. You could see empty sits in the 60k capacity stadium. But coach Sebastien Migne, a Frenchman who had just witnessed his national team win the world cup a few months earlier, had prepared his boys well; defend deeply and hit the opponents on the counter.
Our hardwork paid off in the 40th minute when lethal striker Michael Olunga forced Nicholas Apoku to put the ball in his own net. The game was 1-0 and the results remained the same despite playing majority of the second half one man less after Gor Mahia defender Joash Onyango was send off.
Kenya announced itself to the Football world with that statement win. Our biggest moment came a month later when we hosted Ethiopia at the same venue in October. Having held them to a scoreless draw three days earlier, Kenya needed a win to qualify for AFCON.
The government announced free entry to Kasarani for the match. We beat Ethiopia 3-0, and we did it in spectacular fashion. Olunga, Eric Johanna and captain Michael Olunga were on target.
We beat Malawi 1-0 in an international friendly two days later to end 2018 without conceding a goal in official matches.
The under 23 side also beat Mauritius 5-0 in November in an Olympic qualifier in November making this a remarkable year for the national team.