Totally enjoyed reading this book which is so info-packed yet it flows smoothly.
She was born Wangari Muta in 1940. Went to USA in 1960 on the Kennedy Airlift and returned to Kenya in 1966 with a Masters. After research in Germany she got a PhD in 1971 from The University of Nairobi (UoN) where she lectured.
The Greenbelt movement that she started in 1977 was 100% grass root, organic.
In 1969 Wangari got married to Mwangi who became MP for Langata in 1974. He left her in 1977 and they divorced publicly in 1979. For saying judge in her divorce case was corrupt she was jailed for contempt of court.
She added extra ‘a’ to distinguish from ex-hubby Mathai name.
Prof. Maathai ran afoul of President Daniel arap Moi regime in 1979 during National Council of Women of Kenya chair elections. In 1982 she resigned from UoN to vie for a Member of Parliament seat but the ruling and only party Kanu locked her out on technicality. UoN refused to rehire her and kicked her out of her university house. *After she won the Nobel UoN gave her a honorary doctorate.
As the Moi regime fought Prof. Maathai, Norwegian NGOs, UN Fund for women starting in 1982 gave seed money that saw Greenbelt movement flourish across Kenya through the efforts of village women. By mid-80s Greenbelt was global.
Found it cool that the Professor and Princess Diana celebrated each other.
In 1989/90 Prof. Mathaai protest against the construction of a tower at Uhuru Park saved the park. In 1990/91 she was part of the fight for Kenya’s 2nd liberation. In 1992 she was part of Release Political Prisoners women group that stripped at Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner. In 1993 she shone spotlight on Rift Valley tribal clashes.
Had forgotten about Prof. Maathai running for President in 1997! She was a dreamer and an idealist who rudely discovered Kenyan voters are tribal, averse to policies and ideologies and only care for the Big Men tribal chiefs.
In 1998, Prof. Maathai despite being beaten by hired thugs stood up to President Moi who had parceled out Karura Forest to his friends to construct houses and hotels. Her protest was successful and Karura is currently a treasured public resource.
In 2002 Prof. Maathai was elected MP for Tetu. President Mwai Kibaki then appointed her Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources (you’d have expected her to be named a full Minister of Environment).
In 2004, she won the Nobel Prize as a culmination and celebration of her life’s work of protecting the environment.
She passed away in 2011.
Methinks Uhuru Park should be renamed Wangari Maathai Park as a reminder that in 1989 – 90, Prof. Maathai saved Uhuru Park by protesting against the proposed building of a 60-storey Kenya Times Tower by the Moi-led Kanu govt.
Totally recommend this book about a phenomenal woman whose story is deserving of a movie.
“Why had I not met you before? You know exactly what you have to do and you deliver it single-handedly.”
High praise from the high priest of football match-fixing globally.
These words are from a memoir “Kelong Kings” described by its publishers as the “ultimate tale about gambling, soccer and match-fixing, told directly by the man who made it all happen.”
Courtesy – Amazon
The man was Wilson Raj Perumal, one of the shareholders of a Singapore-based match-fixing syndicate that manipulated the outcome of football matches worldwide so as to bet on the rigged results.
Singaporean Perumal spoke as he reportedly struck a deal in 2010 with Willis Ochieng, a Kenyan goalkeeper who was then playing in the Finnish top league.
The goalkeeper is alleged to have been paid twenty-five thousand euros (6 million Kenyan shillings) to fix two games with Perumal gushing in his praise, “Willis proved to be the kind of player that match-fixers want for their business; convinced and dedicated.”
Despite the details of the deal being spelt out in Perumal’s book, football’s world governing body FIFA found the Kenyan goalkeeper had no case to answer.
Fast forward 11years later and Willis having retired from active professional football now works as a goalkeeper trainer in the Kenyan Premier league (KPL).
For the last 4 years he had been tasked with sharing his skills with the goalkeepers of KPL defending champions Gor Mahia.
How a player whose name on Google search reveals his match-fixing past was not only able find work in the KPL but on the technical bench of the perennial champions should be cause for concern.
Pool – Sportspesa news
39-year old Willis, born and bred in the slums of Mathare in Nairobi and known in football circles as Awilo resigned his position at Gor Mahia last month claiming his abrupt departure was because he had not been paid for 14 months.
However, his exit coincided with a probe instigated by Gor’s officials to investigate whether a string of poor results by the team was as a result of some players and technical officials being involved in match-fixing.
Willis continues to plead his innocence but Kenyan football lost its innocence long ago.
As far back as 2009 Perumal had an association with officials in the Kenyan football federation (FKF). Through his wheeler-dealing national football teams participated in tournaments across the globe that are mentioned in “Kelong Kings” as having being manipulated for financial gain.
The dalliance culminated in the fixing of Kenya’s 2010 World Cup qualifier against Nigeria that eventually saw defender George “Wise” Owino banned for 10 years from all football related activities by FIFA and handed a hefty fine.
In February 2020, FIFA banned four East African players for manipulation of matches during the 2019 KPL season. This as dubious Singaporean companies purported to sponsor teams in the KPL with a curious provision that they be allowed to introduce players – normally defenders and goalkeepers – into the teams. As recently as January 2021, a Ugandan was arrested in Kisumu allegedly trying to fix a KPL match pitting Western Stima against KCB.
European betting is mostly premised on results: win, draw or loss but Asian betting is more about goals scored, conceded and at what time. This makes it harder to detect a match that is being manipulated especially in a league setting.
According to “Kelong Kings”, “if you have a league club, you let it play, because this is your chicken that’s going to give you an egg every week: a golden egg.”
The KPL has a total of 34 games in a season all which are available for betting and whose results are updated in real-time making the Kenyan top flight league a golden goose for betting syndicates.
Pool – KPL Media
How golden? According to the book, illegal Asian betting syndicates powered by live betting reportedly make over a million US dollars in profit from a single fixed match.
To ensure that the goose keeps laying the eggs, the match-fixers are willing to splurge. Perumal shares that, “In 2008, the market rate for players was around 20 thousand US dollars per match for a goalkeeper and 10 thousand US dollars for a defender. While sixty thousand US dollars bought you the full set of referees (1 centre ref and 2 assistants).”
When you consider these amounts in the backdrop of the poverty that engulfs Kenyan football it is clear that the managers of football in the country have their work cut out to rid the beautiful game of the match-fixing stain.
However, this may prove to be tough as Kenyan football currently runs on betting money. BetKing is the title sponsor of the KPL while OdiBets are so-called motivational partners of Harambee Stars.
Pool – FKF Communications
This sticky situation is aptly captured in “Kelong Kings” as Perumal states, “Nowadays football equals gambling plus live betting and betting companies provide a good portion of the money needed to keep the whole circus afloat.”
After reading the “Kelong Kings” one cannot help but look at football in a new light. Thinking how much of what is cheered on so loudly is real and how much of it is fake.
The book also shows the mindset of a compulsive gambler as Perumal gambles away millions of dollars in matches that he has not fixed.
The “Kelong Kings” which is currently only available on Kindle on Amazon with the paperback version out of stock should be a must read for all football fans.
Fair warning though, the book is mostly written in Perumal’s words and the language is crude and his prejudice seeps through.
Patience is required as the book builds up slowly starting in rural Singapore before going on to touch all the corners of the globe in an astonishing web of corruption and greed.
***
Pool – AIPS
A silver lining over the cloud of match-fixing that hangs over the Kenyan football is the fact that NTV’s Idah Waringa and former Daily Nation football writer Jeff Kinyanjui were recently feted by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) for their investigative reporting on the scourge on various Nation Media Group platforms.
Moderate Kenyan 