The documentation of Kenyan cricket remains incomplete without highlighting several families from whom emerged men and women who donned national team colours and acquired international acclaim.
Thanks to exploits of the Odumbes, Tikolos, Sujis and Ngoches, Kenyan cricket transcended racial and socio-economic boundaries and earned the country a top seat at the table of the cricket powerhouses.
The crowning moment for the country came in 2003 when the team — captained by Steve Tikolo — reached the semis of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup where they gallantly fell to India.
Along the way, they claimed the giant scalps of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe — in a tournament that Kenya had co-hosted with Zimbabwe and South Africa.
That Kenyan cricket has fallen by the wayside since then does not erase the immense contributions of these families to the sport.
The Odumbes
The mention of the name 'Odumbe' brings to mind Maurice Odumbe, who was once regarded as one of the finest batsmen globally. Alongside his elder brother Tito, the two are the most prominent members of the Odumbe family as far as cricket is concerned.
However, there were five other Odumbes who played cricket albeit there were never able to scale the heights reached by Maurice and Tito.
"At one point, we were four brothers in the national team. Our brother, the late Kenneth Odhiambo was the first African to play for Kenya and he inspired all of us," Tito says.
His brother, Maurice, was a former ODI captain for Kenya.
He was, unfortunately, suspended from cricket in August 2004 after he allegedly received money from bookmakers. Maurice (now 51) tried to conjure a resurgence by returning to competitive cricket at the domestic level in 2009.
In April 2018, he was appointed the coach of the Kenya national team before his replacement by David Obuya six months later.
The Tikolos
Tom, David and Steve Tikolo fly the Tikolo family flag high for walking the Kenyan cricket scene like a colossus. Tom, the eldest of the three, played first-class cricket for Kenya and captained the country in 22 ICC Trophy games — more than anyone else.
He also played in one first-class match during which he scored a remarkable 79 runs in one innings.
After hanging up the bat, Tom transitioned into management where he has won several hats, including development officer for East Africa, Cricket Kenya CEO (2005) and national cricket team selector.
In following the same career path as his brother, Steve acquired several accolades along the way — apart from being the One Day International captain of the national team.
Alongside Maurice Odumbe, Steve was at one-time considered as the greatest batsman outside of Test cricket.
He has scored the most runs and taken the second most wickets for the team in ODIs.
Peter Ongondo, who played in the national team with Steve Tikolo and Maurice Odumbe as a youngster, admires Steve for building on the achievements of his elder brother, Tom.
"The Tikolos' name was held high by Steve. He maintained discipline and played a big role for Kenya as captain. In my family, my younger brother played club cricket but never went up to national level," Ongondo says.
After retirement, Steve took up coaching as the national team coach of Uganda and Tanzania, where he is currently stationed.
The Obuyas
Likewise, the Obuyas treated cricket fans to exhilarating displays at one time or another.
Kennedy, Collins and David Obuya played integral roles in the national team at a time when Kenya turned heads in the world.
Kennedy — who prefers to be known by his middle name, Otieno — was the chief architect of Sri Lanka's defeat at the 2003 ICC World Cup match in Nairobi thanks to his 60 runs after his batting partner Ravindu Shah had been bowled out by Chaminda Vaas.
The eldest of the three, Kennedy had scored 144 runs at the 1996 ICC World Cup against Bangladesh, which was then the highest score by a Kenyan batsman.
His brother, Collins, also came to prominence at the 2003 ICC World Cup after a virtuoso 5/24 bowling performance against the Sri Lankans earned him a Man of the Match award.
"The Obuyas are the example of hard work. They didn’t have natural talent but work ethics was exceptional on their side," Ongondo says.
Sujis and Ngoches
Ongondo is also adamant that the efforts of the Suji and Ngoche families cannot go unnoticed in Kenyan cricket.
"They (Ngoches) took up the game much later but made an impact. Lameck and Nehemiah helped the team qualify for 2011 World Cup and Shem went ahead to captain the national team. James Ngoche was the best spinner for Kenya before his ban. Three Ngoche sisters also played for Kenya. Margaret Ngoche captained the Kenya women's team," he says.
He has high praise for the Suji brothers of Martin, McDonald and Tony albeit two of them have somewhat ventured away from the game in their sunset years.
"They were awesome. Martin was the lead Kenyan pace bowler for a decade whereas McDonald was the opening bowler for Kenya during the 1994 ICC Trophy/World Cup qualifiers," Ongondo says.
Ongondo adds that Martin is presently coaching in Rwanda while Martin has relocated to the United States and Tony is engaged in business.
The best family?
Apart from genetics and a passion for cricket, what other factor (s) influenced the growth of the cricket dynasties?
Tito believes that environs played a huge factor in cricketers taking after their older siblings who had paved the way for them in the game.
"Most of the family cricketers grew up in Ngara either in Government or Railways quarters. We grew up in the Government quarters where our love for the game was ingrained," he says.
He is sad that this trend of nurturing cricketers within families has now become the exception rather than a norm.
He blames this on a raft of issues, including laziness and poor governance of cricket.
"Cricket stakeholders need to improve the governance of the game and work on a change of mindset. Cricket players need to work hard as opposed to thinking that cricket owes them a favour," Tito says.
As one who has experienced the glory days of cricket — its growth from an exclusive sport to one for the masses — Tito's sentiments are heartfelt and worth embracing to resurrect cricket from the tomb of doom in which it is currently seemingly buried.
Undoubtedly, there are Odumbes, Tikolos, Sujis and Obuyas that are waiting to be unearthed, refined and turned into the next crop of cricket legends. This is only possible if cricket stakeholders put their house in order — as Tito suggests.