Teen stabbed in row over English soccer league

After claiming the life of a die-hard Kenyan fan a year ago, the curse of the English Premier League, the world’s richest football league, has struck again.

It has left in its wake a teenager – a Manchester United fan – nursing a serious stomach injury after a supporter of the rival Arsenal soccer club stabbed him repeatedly following a fight over their favourite teams’ standings in the league following last Sunday’s games.

Abubakar Baishe, 19, was stabbed in the lower left side of the abdomen. The attacker has since gone into hiding.

A team of doctors led by King Fahd Hospital superintendent Dr Nurein Muhidin carried out a major operation on the victim in Lamu District on Wednesday and managed to safely restore protruding intestines to their proper position.

Major surgery

“There was an intestine perforation of at least 2.0 centimetres, and we had to carry out major surgery to correct the situation. He is currently out of danger,” Dr Muhidin told the Sunday Nation on the phone from the hospital.

This sad incident portrays the degree of passion with which Kenyans support English soccer clubs and comes a year after an Arsenal fan committed suicide at Pipeline Estate in Nairobi in the wake of his team’s loss to Manchester United in the UEFA Champions league.

Suleiman Omondi’s body, clad in an Arsenal T-shirt, was found dangling from the ceiling of his room after he went home in utter bitterness following his favourite team’s loss.

According to Dr Muhidin, Baishe, a Form Two student at Kizingitini Secondary School, was in serious condition when he was taken to hospital.

“His condition has greatly improved,” Dr Muhidin said.

Yusuf Baishe, the victim’s father, is yet to come to terms with the close shave his son has had with death, all for the love of football.

To complicate matters, the assailant is a relative and his son’s classmate. This, according to the senior Mr Baishe, limits his options regarding the course of action to take against his son’s attacker.

“This is mere childishness as we adults cannot turn on each other with a knife; not for the sake of the English Premier League going on in a far-away continent,” he said.

The 20-year-old assailant is said to have fled to Tanzania.

Mr Baishe, an employee of the planning department of Lamu County Council, said the two boys were reportedly embroiled in a serious debate over whether Manchester United or Arsenal would clinch the trophy.

“But my son took it just as a mere debate usually exchanged by die-hard fans across the globe, only for his colleague to turn his anger on him with a pen knife he was carrying,” he said.

According to the father, his son’s assailant fled soon after the attack and left him bleeding profusely.

A pedestrian who saw him lying in a pool of blood raised the alarm.

A hired speed boat took him to the district hospital, arriving three hours later.

Friendly match

Hussein Miji, a family friend, told the Sunday Nation that the two boys had earlier in the day joined their colleagues in a friendly match between Kizingitini and Chundwa villages.

The two young men played for their Kizingitini team, which won the match.

Lamu police boss Augustine Kimantiria said an investigation was underway.

“We are working hard to catch up with the main suspect, who is still at large,” he said by telephone from Lamu.