Sports journalist Tsuma positively touched people he came into contact with

At 50, Chris Tsuma was really in the prime of his life, exploring his professional potential and enjoying his favourite past time of weights training after having stepped away from the rigours, tightly-timed and now 24-hour pressure envelope of the modern newsroom.

The messages on his Facebook page, popping up thick and fast, long and short, well-thought out and spontaneous – and all really genuine, reflected it all.
One person, perhaps a relative, mentioned how they had talked a few days earlier and Tsuma revealed to him an interview he was to attend at Maseno University.

Another anguished loudly what had happened after they had met at the annual Safari Sevens and how they had exchanged good natured banter.

Moving poems were copy pasted and raw emotions displayed. Death I suppose brings that response from those yet to succumb to its inevitable embrace. For Tsuma’s, you could see the outpouring of emotions.

He was that kind of guy who positively touched those he came in contact with, not so much with his ready smile as his big-hearted nature.

I first got to know Tsuma in the early years of the 2000s. Smooth faced and friendly, he was the kind of person you would consider dominating, but his impressive physique – one that Kenya’s foremost bodybuilder Micky Ragos would nod at in approval – perished that thought as quickly as it appeared.

He could fill up the room with his attentive stare. But it is his intellect that was more impressive. Many in sports journalism have been accused of cheerleading and, for lack of a better word, being in bed with their sources. Not so Tsuma, who stuck to his professional calling with the tenacity of a pit bull.

Many a times, those early years I was cutting my teeth in the trade at the Nations Sports Desk, I overhead Tsuma on phone in heated arguments with news sources not happy with some story he had written about them. You see, he was steadfast in what he believed in and ready to stand by it.

I remember one time he had written a football story explicitly stating, when no other report did, how AFC Leopards goons had gone on the rampage at World Hope Centre in Nairobi during a Kenyan Premier League match.

Leopards officials, clearly not happy with the story, paid a visit to the Nation newsroom. The officials, looking for the “pesky” reporter, found their way to Tsuma’s desk and clearly expressed their dismay to him.

For those who knew Tsuma, he did have short fuse at times, this encounter had the potential of boiling over. But on this occasion he calmly and quietly listened to them. When they were done he gladly reiterated what he had reported in the paper.

“If you have problems with the story you can go see the Editorial Director,” he offered politely. They took him up on that offer, and up from his seat like an arrow from a bow, Tsuma proceeded to direct them right up to the office of Wangethi Mwangi, the big boss then.

But it was not all calm in his line of duty. He was once arrested at the stadium as he attempted to cover an international football match involving Kenya’s Harambee Stars. At that time, there were two wrangling Kenya Football Federation factions who had gone on to arrange for the match and issued parallel accreditation.

True to his principles, Tsuma showed up for the match with neither accreditations – that is what he thought of the two feuding factions - but his press card and demanded to be let in. Needless to say, a confrontation ensued.

“Inspector, let me do my job and you do yours. Mine is inside the stadium to cover the Stars game,” Tsuma thundered menacingly as a line of policemen stood guard at the stadium entrance.

I think Tsuma took matters too far when he threatened to physically deal with the inspector in charge. If you knew the size of Tsuma’s fists, you would appreciate the weight of the threat. Sensing real danger, the police promptly arrested him. Wise counsel did prevail in the end and he was released and eventually gained access to the stadium to do his job.

Football, cricket, boxing, basketball, name them, Tsuma would expertly pen the narrative. And it was not just about the bread and butter of sports stories – match previews, reports and reviews, he took on the more difficult subjects such as corruption, doping, social aspects of sports, that invariably rubbed the main stake holders the wrong way.
But did Tsuma care? Yes, to his audience, the public and to what he believed in - fairness and justice.

For a boy brought up in Kakamega, better known for producing powerful rugby players and skillful footballers, Tsuma took a liking for the more gentleman game of cricket.

Anyone who likes sports dreams of experiencing a World Cup. Tsuma lived his dream when he travelled to South Africa as one of only two Kenyan journalists to cover the 2003 Cricket World Cup jointly also hosted by Zimbabwe and Kenya.

As he filed copy after copy of the heroic deeds – runs made and wickets taken - of the Kenyan boys who wrote history by making it to the semi-final, the first non-Test playing country to do so, few knew of the sacrifices he made.

Tsuma was given money by Nation for only two weeks. He was to return soon after the preliminaries as no one had given Kenya, including his employers, any chance of going further than the group stages.

Well, Kenya almost went all the way and Tsuma knew he had to be on hand to record, first hand, this history shattering achievement. He never told me how he survived after the preliminaries.

From a reporter to sub-editor, he moved up the ranks even as he continued writing, while juggling that with studies for an MA in Communication Studies at the University of Nairobi.

Eager to stretch his horizons, Tsuma created time to also do part-time jobs, tutoring budding journalists.

One of the best Kenyan sports journalists, his deep knowledge of the industry will be missed. I will personally miss his good natured personality, camaraderie and personal warmth.