Day Mean Machine lads pulled off famous Kenya Cup win

Forty years ago this Saturday, a bunch of university students pulled off a stunning and unforgettable sporting victory.

Led by players Tom Oketch and Cliff Mukulu, the University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine Rugby Football Club, won the Kenya Cup. This was and continues to be the premier club rugby competition in Kenya.

Their audacious victory was the first ever cup win in any rugby competition in Kenya at the time, by a side consisting entirely of African players.

I watched that final, and this is the story of the run to eventual Kenya Cup rugby glory by the swashbuckling university students.

The day was Saturday May 28, 1977 and the venue was the Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) Ngong Road Grounds. The referee was Roy Acreman and the teams in action for that historic Kenya Cup final, played before a sold-out crowd, were Impala Boks and Mean Machine.

Boks were captained by flyhalf Rob Rowland while the university lads were led out by full back Cliff Mukulu. Considering the fact that Mean Machine’s opponents had been formed in 1930, while Mean Machine were formed three years earlier, it would be interesting to know how Mean Machine came to find themselves, playing in the premier Kenya Cup, in the first place.

The Kenya Cup was contested for by clubs placed in two geographical pools. In that year Machine were placed in the Northern Division. Other clubs in that division were Mombasa, Kenya Army, Quins Ruffians, Impala Gazelles and Nondescripts Tigers.

The Southern Division pool consisted of Quins Vandals, Thika, Eldoret, Nondecripts Lions, Impala Boks and Dar es Salaam, who however withdrew before the competition kicked off, that year. Because of their perceived superior strength, the big three of Kenya rugby at the time, Kenya Harlequins, Impala Club and Nondescripts, always entered split sides of near equal strength. This was ostensibly to aid the cause of new entrants like Mean Machine, find some kind of footing, while participating in the Kenya Cup.

Mean Machine very nearly got knocked out in their first match and thus confirm the sceptics view that an all-African side was ill-prepared to take on the battle hardened, three older clubs. Nondescripts had been formed in 1923 and Kenya Harlequins shortly thereafter.

Prior to 1977 and for perhaps another decade after, these big three clubs, put out a first team that consisted almost entirely of white players. These were either expatriates or locals, mainly of British ancestry. Back to 1977 and Mean Machine’s run to that historic day. Game one was a narrow 8-3 win against the Army. A try back then was worth four points. Their second match was equally close and ended 7-4 versus Mombasa.

Then came the semi-finals and things got very interesting. The first semi final saw Nondies Lions line up against Impala Boks at Impala Club. This game ended 9-6 in favour of Boks. Rowland scoring three penalties and Peter Evans kicking two for Lions.

Never before in the history of Rugby union in East Africa was a semi-final more anticipated that that of Mean Machine and Nondies Tigers. Machine consisting almost entirely of former students of both Nairobi School (Patch) and Lenana School (Changes), played their semi final at Lenana School.

The date was Saturday May 21, 1977 and the entire student population of Lenana School and possibly the University of Nairobi (UON) too, were in attendance. I vividly recall scores of U0N buses, packed to the brim with students on the roof top carriers too, descend on Lenana School.

Being an unenclosed ground, on the Upper Ridge pitch, the atmosphere was undoubtedly intimidating to the defending champions Nondies and one had to be a true Tiger to play in such an environment.

Tom Thorpe was the referee and soon got the proceedings under way. Tigers had a formidable back row in Rod Torkington, Mike Evans and Dereck Pardington. Machine on the other hand had an explosive set of backs in Bimbo Mutere, Cliff Mukulu and Dave Muraya.

Interestingly both teams kickers were forwards. Torkington for the Tigers and Chief Edebe for Machine. Torkington put the Tigers up to 6-0 with two penalties, in what would later turnout to be their only points in the match. Edebe kicked over a penalty for Machine to make it 6-3 at the break.

With a place in the Kenya Cup final only 40 minutes away, both teams gave it as much as they got in the second half.

The Tigers fire power in the backs was led by Ken Chambers and Martin Amoke. Chambers was an unstoppable 110kgs winger who only knew to run in a straight line!! Recalls his opposite number on the day John ‘speedy’ Akatsa “How such a huge man could shift such mass, so fast, is something I could never comprehend! Chambers run straight at you as though you did not exist and was in every sense a human battering ram."

Amoke, an alumnus of the Rift Valley Academy, was another giant on the field of play. Standing at 6’5 and weighing in at 115kg, Amoke (RIP) is reputed to arguably have been the fastest thing on two feet, with a rugby ball in hand to grace East Africa’s rugby pitches. He was a track scholarship athlete at University in the US.

Edebe powered his way over for a try that Mukulu converted to see the students finally go ahead, in the semis, but the best was yet to come. Winger Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Lubembe received a long looping pass just inside his half, from Mukulu.

A dummy saw Tom Ollerhead go the wong away and a huge hole opened up the Tigers rear guard. Two side steps followed and Lubembe had a clear run to the line.

The Tigers were not done yet, and Amoke set off on a thunderous cross field run to try race down Lubembe. Lubembe shifted gears, and Amoke went into overdrive as the frenzied thousands, watched the unfolding drama. As Amoke closed what had earlier seemed an impossible gap, Lubembe begun a swerved run to the line, so as to make Amoke’s run that little bit longer.

It worked and Lubembe grounded the ball in a dive as Amoke similarly dived in a vain attempt to knock Lubembe into touch. Mukulu converted and Machine were in an unlikely Kenya Cup final, 15-6, at their first entry.

The exit of both Nondies teams on the same day, by scoring identical six points, had an interesting side story to it. Nondescripts had earlier taken out a quarter page paid advert in both The East African Standard and The Nation.

The advert featured a Lion with a rugby ball in hand and the advert read ,verbatim “Its me again, only this time I have come to fix that new machine, everyone keeps talking about!!”

The final match, played on Saturday May 28, 1977 saw Rob Rowland lead out his Boks side that consisted of Roy Leask, George Zibarras, Chris Lee, Beth Omollo, Oliver Pugh, Harbeson, Kangethe, Sylvester Ashioya, GarethDavies, Mike Andrews,Jonathan Scott, Dave Parsons, Wellington Echessa,Paul Pavlidis and Arnie Mitchell.

Mean Machine had Cliff Mukulu (C), John Akatsa, Ben Mukuria, Shapi Kadir, Dave Muraya, Joe Mbithuka, Bimbo Mutere, George Mngongo, Coutts Otolo, Frank Abukutsa, Kaisi Kalambo, Chief Edebe, Tom Oketch, Geoffrey Simiyu, Aggrey Awimbo, Dave Awimbo and Emmanuel Lubembe. Boks raced into a 3-0 lead thanks to the trust boot of the bow legged flyhalf Rowland. Chief leveled it at 3-3 with a penalty, before Rowland put over a further penalty to make it 6-3 at the break.

Back row Abukutsa powered his way over the line with Mukulu adding the two points, to see Machine lead 9-6. Rowland leveled with another penalty,on the hour mark in a game whose outcome was increasingly getting hard to predict.

The Boks back row of Andrews, Scott and Zibarras ensured that the exciting Machine backs could not operate as they would have liked too. It was thus left to Machines back row to take charge of proceedings and they did not disappoint.

In one sweeping move begun by Oketch and backed by Abu, found prop Otolo on the end of it and he powered the last 15 metres through a a group of red shirts to touch down for 12-9 on the 73rd minute. Mukulu added the two points to make it 15-9.

With the clock running down, Rowland rallied his troops one more time and won a penalty on the 87th minute. He converted it for 15-12.Mean Machines supporters then endured what must have seemed like a very long 3 minutes, before Acreman blew the final whistle and history had been made.

In an interesting coincidence Machine scored 15 points in both their semis and final match. In the semis top points scorer for Machine was Chief Edebe with 7 points through a penalty and his own try. In the final, Machines top scorer’s tied with three players all scoring four points each. Mukulu’s two conversions, Otolo’s try and Abukutsa’s try.

Contrary to popular belief, this all conquering group of students were not the founders of Mean Machine. The 1977 team consisted mainly of final year students. In the words of Oketch “Our squad simply caused the explosion, but others had begun the journey before us. Continued Oketch “ When we joined campus in 1974 the likes of Willis Nyanjom, Frank Ojiambo, Fred Ojiambo, Peter Kamau and Joe Karago among others, were already playing rugby, under the Mean Machine name. They, actually won the rugby competition at the East Africa University games, in 1975”.

“We are probably the unforgettable and immortalised, but the other group were undoubtedly the pioneers.” Even the name Mean Machine, has a fascinating history and lends credence to Oketch’s position.

It was adopted from a movie by the same name, written by Albert S, Puddy and Directed by Robert Aldrich. In the movie a sadistic penitentiary guard gets the inmates to form an American Football team to play the guards.

The inmates are led by an star ex-footballer and are mainly black. In the course of their training for the match the guard tries to blackmail the former star footballer to help throw the match.

The inmates had other ideas, about using the match to repay the guards for their brutality against them. (inmates).
Burt Reynolds starred in the movie and the inmates won the match. Date of release of the movie; August 1974.

Mean Machine have never been able to win the Kenya Cup again. Even more tragic is that Machine was relegated this season to the Eric Shirley Shield.

In the lead up to the 1977 final, Impala had won the Kenya Cup five times in a row from 1970-1974. Nondies then won it in the next two years and a further seven years (1978-1984) after that. Mwamba in 1985 then become the next African side to win it with Barclays Bank following suit in 1987.