‘I regret not listening to you...Bob Munro’

Robert Donald Munro, popularly known in all corners of Nairobi slums as Bob Munro, and, by extension, the whole country, has exited the scene a proud man.

Allow me to celebrate the life of this great legend, a true father of a football community, a mentor to many, a beacon of hope and a guardian to a multitude of ghetto children in my own words as history can best remind me.

Since the wake of the sad news of his passing, many people have spoken about how good Munro was, and I want to speak about how he strove to make my life good.

I pride myself as a pioneer member of the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA)— his brainchild—having joined in August 1988 at Eastleigh Community Centre.

Lucky was me when a group of predominantly white men came to survey the field at lunch hour.

With most of my colleagues having taken a break to have lunch; I was left alone juggling the rugged polythene mound that served as our soccer ball.

My ball-handling attention was immediately diverted to the group that walked towards the dusty centre of the pitch, where I was honing my pepeta skills.

I stopped and looked up as I patiently waited to be abducted to greener pastures because those days, the sight of mzungus meant probably good fortune.

I was in my territory and I wasn’t cowed by their direct walk towards me.

In their midst, I recognised Calvin Mbugua of the Undugu Society of Kenya—which was the umbrella body of the Undugu Football Club—our rite of football passage, when we came of age.

Undugu Society of Kenya also offered homes or orphanages to Nairobi Street boys or simply the ‘Parking Boys’ as we were called those days.

Seeing Calvin in the group made matters easy for me because he knew me right to our house.

After going through the greeting banality, I became the unofficial guide to the visitors walking with them around the field as they took measurements with their eyes.

It is here that I learnt about Munro’s vision of starting a league that will enable the youths of Mathare and its environ use proper soccer balls and play in uniforms (the legendary Mysa vests) on elaborate pitches with trained referees, community service, environmental awareness and awards among many other things that shaped our lives to who were are today.

That first meeting with Munro would be a blessing to my family; he wanted to know where I lived after that survey and since it was just a stone’s throw from the field, I walked the group to our humble abode, where we found my mum feeding her large family on Ugali and ndengu.

She was about to reprimand me for reporting late to the table only for her ire to thaw upon seeing the surprise guests.

Mum ran a welding and metal workshop which landed a windfall contract to fabricate all the MYSA moveable mini goalposts.

Titus Mulama and his brother Simeon Mulama could score beautiful goals between these goalposts as I refereed their matches not knowing I did the paint-work.

In a nutshell, my first interaction with Bob Munro was a business deal for my family, which went a long way to support the livelihood of the Otama family.

I formed a tight bond with Bob since that day, and today, I will openly say here that the regrets that I have had in life are not following Munro.

In life, I have un-regretfully made so many questionable decisions, including the recent football elections, but only one early mistake that I believe has led me to make those decisions.

Growing up in the Mysa setup and with the immense and rare footballing talent that I exhibited, Bob introduced me to all necessary leadership classes and training to achieve a complete person both on and off the pitch.

By the time Mysa was two years old in 1990, I inevitably made it in the group of 16 boys that made the maiden Norway Cities Tour and Norge Cup tournament to open the way for many thousand others because we displayed great talent on Ekeberg pitches and exemplary show of discipline off the green grids of football.

Munro exposed me to the local and international football world and everyone who saw me wanted to have my services as a player.

However, Bob saw beyond just playing football in Kenya.

Through Mysa All-Star team Mathare United, then a none league team, I was selected to represent Nairobi County in an inter-county youth football tournament, dubbed the Panasonic Provincial football tournament.

At this tournament, my prowess in goal-keeping had coaches and games teachers drooling, and it’s here that I made decisions against those of Munro.

Bob had secured a Form One scholarship slot for me at the prestigious Starehe Boys Centre, which was closely associated with MYSA.

Instead, I chose an equally educational powerhouse, Kangaru School, Embu, but with prominence in football because I wanted to play and dodge the strict discipline that came with ‘Stach’...I Aimed Low!

My other mistake was when Mathare United was registered to play in the Provincial League; I had already enrolled at Re-Union FC as a fringe youth player.

Bob sat me down to change that decision but Re-Union, through my other mentor Hon Peter Kenneth, paid my school fees at Kangaru School and I was entitled to some small perks that made me wrongfully overlook Bob Munro.

Truth be spoken, both gentlemen were so dear to me to the point I got confused about which direction to take, but again, if you ask me, I’d say I betrayed Bob because of money.

As sides fought for my supremacy in my early teenage, Munro only won one war on me.

This was when Mysa, being the custodian of my travel document, refused to release it to the Junior Under 17 Harambee Stars that was travelling to Sweden, and within a space of five days, the Mysa Junior Select team were also slated to travel to Norway.

I cried and hated Mysa officials at missing the Junior Stars trip but laughed that day I found myself at JKIA aboard a British Airways flight to Fornebu Airport via Heathrow.

That’s the day I should have learnt to be patient with Munro.

Football-wise, I grew up with stature.

I was on every fan’s lips, especially after the Harambee Stars vs Algeria in the Algiers match-up, but stature is completely nothing without proper guidance.

I had abandoned my football Godfather and Captain thinking I could sail the rough high seas by myself...I was wrong!

Munro never gave up on me, and when the controversial rift between me and the late coach Reinhardt Fabisch arose, the first person to call me for a meeting at Utalii Hotel was none other than Munro.

At the meeting, he said, “My son, don’t hide anything from me; just tell me what exactly happened. I want to help you!”

For sure, what had happened was not what was being reported in the media, so I told Bob, “I don’t know!”

His concern also was what was being said, which he highly doubted; having been with me for so many years.

He didn’t believe the indiscipline allegations were true and all he knew was I was a team clown who would openly joke with anyone.

That day, I shed tears out of innocence.

After that meeting, he asked me if I’d sign for Mathare United the following season; I obliged, only for that time to come and be lured by money again to make a move to Leopards.

Indeed, Munro wanted to help me and get my Number One jersey back at the national team and a possible move outside the country but all I did was avoid him.

The writer is former Harambee Stars goalkeeper and one of the pioneer players at MYSA