When Dick Obure was posted to Kanga High School in Rongo, Migori county as a Swahili teacher in 2003, he vowed he would use that opportunity to impart his football knowledge and skills on the students.
It was his wish to see some of the students pursue a career in football that would surpass his own.
For the next 20 years, he produced one gem after another who are now scattered in different parts of the world playing professional football including in the UEFA Europa League.
Born in Nairobi’s Pumwani hospital in 1977, Obure lived in Nairobi, Siaya, Kisii and many other parts of the country gaining valuable lessons in integration and bonding with different people.
This enabled him acquire great people’s skills.
He discovered he had a passion for football from a young age because he would stop wherever he saw people playing, just to watch and marvel, sometimes this landing him in trouble with his strict father.
This ignited a spark in him that would trigger the innate footballer in him.
His father, also a teacher, did not want to hear anything to do with football, despite being a sports person.
He only wanted his son to concentrate on his education and “not waste time playing football”.
He was a great centre-back who could play as a creative midfielder, a unique combination that enabled him become an asset for any coach who saw him play from his time at Cardinal Otunga High School, Mosocho.
He was spotted and eventually drafted in the Kenya Premier League side Kenya Re and later Re-Union.
He would balance between football and studies when he joined Kenyatta University to pursue a Bachelor of Education degree in Kiswahili and Special Needs.
He captained the campus team. In 2003, when he joined Kanga High School, he had to stop playing the sport and become a coach.
He went to football coaching classes and obtained a CAF D license.
“That is when I started moulding talent. I used to look for any talented boy around and take him to Kanga where he would gain quality education and at the same time develop his football talent,” Obure says.
At Kanga, he would negotiate with the principal and the talented, but needy, students would be sponsored throughout their four-year stay at the school.
“Sometimes when the principal thought the sponsored students were too many, I would negotiate a partial payment and would use my money to pay for half their fees,” Obure said.
At that time, the principal, Zablon Ogweno, a former boxer, was very supportive of sports.
Before 2004, when Obure took over the school football team fully, Kanga had never progressed past the zonals for a long time.
The footballing powerhouse in Rongo was Koderobara Secondary School and the zonal finals was always Kanga against Koderobara with the latter always emerging victorious and progressing to the district level.
But in 2004, Obure broke that barrier and Kanga progressed all the way to the provincial school games at Agoro Sare High School in Oyugis, Homa Bay county, where Kanga was knocked out in the quarter finals by Gianchere Secondary School.
The historic team included Allan “Shearer” Were, a striker who was so good, he used to play for Kenya Premier League side Sony Sugar, in Awendo, Migori county, while in Form 2.
He helped Sony Sugar secure a Kenya Premier League title.
Obure, with the help of professional football player Bob Oyugi , helped Were secure a football scholarship in the US and joined a college in Atlanta, Georgia.
Were is now a coach in the US after his playing career came to an end.
He was the first of more than 20 players Obure helped get either scholarships or teams abroad.
“There is Hubert Kopany. This was a talent that through Oyugi, I helped move to California in the US on a football scholarship. He played for Western Stima in the KPL,” Obure said.
Douglas Ogolla, who also passed through the hands of Obure at Kanga, moved to Pennsylvania in the US, and is now a major in the US army after his footballing career ended.
He was recruited from Otieno Oyoo High School in Kisumu while in Form 1 and was an orphan.
“Those are some of my boys who are in the US. There is one who is playing in the Uefa Europa League currently for Swedish side IF Elfsborg,” Obure says proudly.
Harambee Stars’ Timothy ‘Babu’ Ouma, is a student of Obure, who now plays a midfielder at IF Elfsborg and is on the verge of a Sh465 million move to Czech club Slavia Prague.
Sources in Sweden reveal that Ouma has declined multiple offers, including lucrative contracts from Saudi Arabian clubs and interest from English sides Luton Town and Sheffield United, to secure a move to Slavia Prague.
In the KPL currently, his boys include midfielders Vincent Otieno and Clifford Ouma (City Stars), Yusuf and Essien both at Mara Sugar and Clinton “Aguero” Omondi (Ulinzi Stars).
In the Kenya Super League, his boys include Ouma, Mido and Ojwang (Migori Youth), Eddy Bala (Kibera Blackstars)among many others.
Even the current Harambee Stars captain Michael Olunga was under his charge at first but then Kanga principal Ogweno locked him out because the sponsorship quarter had been filled.
He says there was a lot of talent at Kanga but they lacked that mentorship and coaching that would bring out their talents.
He says before Kenya Kwanza’s Talanta Hela initiative, which he says is a promising initiative, Kenya lost many young talents because they were not nurtured in the right way.
It was not all rosy though.
Sometimes the talents he spotted would experience culture shock because of the intimidating nature of Kanga as a national school.
“I had two students from Mombasa who were not used to the kind of lifestyle we had in Kanga, They could not cope and I had to make them live with me at my house in the teachers quarters to help them slowly get used to the village life.”
“Sometimes, I had to speak to the principal to allow my boys to be in school despite having no school fees. Sometimes I would pay for them part of the fees just to convince the principal the boys were working hard to look for school fees,” he says.
He also used to approach friends and well-wishers to chip in and pay for some of the boys’ school fees.
His old boys have also been instrumental in this journey.
They used to pass by the school for motivational talks and help the continuing students focus on both their education and football.
Today, the same boys he helped are giving back to the community. Obure, who is currently the deputy principal at Joyland Special Secondary school in Kisumu and a scout for KPL side Shabana FC, has secured a partial scholarship from New York University where he is to pursue a Master’s Degree in Special Needs Education.
However, he is encountering financial challenges as he has to move with his family and this will cost him over a million shillings.
“I am happy some of the boys who have gone through my hands are chipping in. One has bought me one air-ticket. I really thank them. They asked me not to mention them but I am grateful to them,” he says.
“I am now preparing my papers
and those of my family members. I
hope all will be well soon and I am
hopeful I will make it,” he says.
