A Kenyan football fan's wistful look back - Part I
What you need to know:
- Later, we learnt that a crowd of spectators had rushed to the gate to gain free access to the stadium, and that a young boy had been killed in the stampede.
- Right in front go us, between our seats and the goal post below, was a huge fire engine. Why was it there?
- The most interesting moment of the match came when a marabou stork flew into the stadium and landed on the pitch near a corner flag.
It’s been ten years since I was at last a national soccer match. That was in June 2005, when Morocco came to play the Harambee Stars at the Nyayo National Stadium.
That Saturday afternoon, a friend and I stood in a long queue outside the stadium, waiting to buy tickets. At some point the queues were not moving and there were whispers that the tickets had run out.
Still, having come so far, we remained in the queue and a few minutes later, the ticket sales resumed. Looking back, it seems like someone printed a bunch of tickets and rushed them to the stadium.
We bought them at face value and joined another queue to enter the stadium where the game was already on.
As we waited to pass through security, we noticed a huge dent in the vehicle-size doors at the entrance to the stadium. It looked like a van had smashed the door.
Later, we learnt that a crowd of spectators had rushed to the gate to gain free access to the stadium, and that a young boy had been killed in the stampede.
Inside the stadium, the terraces were packed with shouting fans and it seemed there was absolutely nowhere to sit for those still coming in. Still, I spotted some empty seating behind one goal post and we proceeded there.
Surprisingly we had a huge space, several rows wide, of empty stone seats to ourselves. We were about halfway up the seating area, and soon saw the reason why we had such generous seating.
MARABOU STORK
There were several vehicles parked inside the stadium, including several Nairobi City Council ambulances and police cars. But right in front go us, between our seats and the goal post below, was a huge fire engine.
Why was it there? To stop a fire? To spray water on the crowd? So its crew could watch the free match?
No one knows. But whatever the reason, it obscured our view of about two-thirds of the soccer pitch, and the only time we were able to watch any soccer was when the ball was played at the far end in front of the opposing goal.
So we sat there, mostly watching the crowd and hearing them cheer the invisible action in front of the fire engine.
The most interesting moment of the match came when a marabou stork flew into the stadium and landed on the pitch near a corner flag.
It sparked a lot of excitement from the crowd, many of whom seemed to wonder, superstitiously, what the bird’s arrival meant. It was too much of a distraction and eventually, one of the many officials chased it and it flew off.
It seemed to want to fly up and out of this stadium, but every time it tried to soar out, the crowd would stand and cheer, and this would scare it to turn around.
This happened a few times, with the bird flying back and forth, causing more commotion each time. Eventually it got tired and landed in one corner of the field, where it was chased into a side tunnel. I didn’t see what happened after that.
Twitter: @bankelele
