Aden Marwa, the man who will fly Kenya’s flag high in Brazil

The reigning Kenyan Premier League Best Assistant Referee is also a secondary school teacher. He was in class when he received the news that he had been called to officiate several matches at the Fifa World Cup. He tells our reporter how he floored some of the world’s best referees to clinch a position in the 32-man team that will call the shots in Brazil.

Two Kenyans will be playing in the World Cup in Brazil in a few days, one on the pitch, the other on the touchlines. Divock Origi Okoth, the son of former Kenya international Mike Origi Okoth, will turn out for Belgium; while Aden Marwa, a referee who does not have as strong a football pedigree as Origi, will turn out for the world.

It is Marwa, however, who will draw the most attention from Kenya when the games begin. Both may have Kenyan roots, but one seems to have sunk his deeper than the other.

Origi may have Kenyan blood coursing in his veins, but he will not fly to Brazil as a Kenyan, but as a citizen of his adopted country, Belgium. In the strictest sense, therefore, only one Kenyan will be at the World Cup in Brazil, and that Kenyan is Aden Marwa.

We traced him to Komotobo Secondary School in Migori, where he is a science teacher, and asked him what he thinks of the opportunity to shine at the global fiesta.

“It came as a surprise,” he said. “But I guess those who were most surprised were my colleagues from college as, during my student days, I played all other games except football. They couldn’t understand how a man who would never touch a soccer ball would be part of a 32-member team managing the game at the highest global level.”

What those friends from college do not know is that, soon after his studies, Marwa joined a village football team to, he says, “kill the boredom”, and that, in the course of killing that boredom, he started honing his skills as a centre referee.

And then, one day as he was officiating a match, a professional referee named Kennedy Ongeko noticed that there was something about the man that could be polished and advised him to join the Kenya Association of Referees and enrol for a trade examination.

He thought about it for a while, and then enrolled for entry-level exams. “I passed the exams to become a Grade III referee. From there, I started attending seminars and workshops that eventually saw me become a fully certified Fifa referee.”

BEST ASSISTANT REFEREE

Marwa is the reigning Kenyan Premier League assistant referee of the year. He says the doors opened for him when he attained the official Fifa certification. For years, he was a small-time official back home in Kehancha, but the Kenya Premier League sought his services. Fifa followed soon afterwards.

His first major international duty was an Africa Cup match in Zanzibar in 2000. It is here that he discovered that the beautiful game could, indeed, be beautiful. Countless times, he had been the victim of both player and fan outrage back home, yet here everyone respected his calls.

“I have come to discover that football is easier to officiate at the highest level because the fans understand the laws of the game and will not antagonise the referee over small issues.”

Other than opening his eyes to the beauty of the game, refereeing also introduced him to a world he only saw on TV and in glossy magazines. That clash in Zanzibar in 2000, for instance, afforded him the opportunity to fly for the first time, enjoy five-star accommodation, and be chauffeured around.

He has since toured the world, but the world is not Brazil, the Mecca of everything football. For Marwa, therefore, this will be more of a pilgrimage than a call of duty. He could not believe it when, while going about his duties at Komotobo, a journalist called to break the news that he would be flying to Brazil courtesy of Fifa.

“I was in class teaching when the call came,” he remembers. “And then, after the man on the other end finished his string of congratulations, I walked to my room, knelt down, and thanked God for the opportunity. There are thousands upon thousands of referees in the world, yet, somehow, my name appeared among the 32 headed for this tournament!”

The 37-year-old admits that juggling teaching and travelling to officiate matches has been a challenge for, although quite adventurous, it means less time with this family. And, because he stays 30 kilometres away from where he teaches, he has to put more effort into his teaching duties to clear the syllabus. That means waking up before the cock crows to teach early in the morning and staying in class late in the evening.

“I travel a lot and may be out of class for weeks,” he says. “So when I come back I have to make up for lost time with my students and family. It can be draining, but somehow we have learnt to understand one another.”

For a man who is rarely in class, it is worth noting that his chemistry class was the best in his district last year, a feat which he attributes to adjustments he has made with his students to teach over weekends, and a supportive school management team.

Bridgit Agao, a student at Komotobo, says that, for the one month that Marwa will be away, she and her colleagues will dedicate some of their time to watching him in action because “it is very rare for a common teacher to appear on the World Cup stage”.

Marwa himself knows that this will be the biggest test of his mettle and is already preparing for it. Fifa insists that he must be medically, physically, and technically fit if he is to appear on the pitch, which means that he has to work out regularly to stay in shape.

“I thank God that He has given me good health,” he says. “Now it is up to me to ensure that I remain physically and technically fit.”

Fifa has set the ceiling for weight at 76 kilogrammes. Marwa tips the scales at 70, but still insists on a weight management programme to bring it down “just a little bit”.

As he works to bring down the kilos, his star keeps rising. From the Africa Cup duty in Zanzibar in 2000, he has starred in a number of other roles, including the CAF U20 championships in Rwanda, the Chan tournament in Sudan in January 2011, the U17 World Cup in Mexico in July 2011, the CAF U23 championships in Morocco the same year, and the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in 2012.