How Moi chartered a flight for victorious Harambee Stars

It turns out that the current crop of politicians sponsoring football fans to go cheer the national football team at international assignments are following in former president Daniel arap Moi's footsteps.

Mzee Moi would go to great lengths to help Harambee Stars win and, like a true fan, went through the extreme emotions of winning and losing.

Some time in 1981, Harambee Stars goalkeeper Mahmoud Abbas received a phone call from the reception lobby of the hotel where the national team was camping in Dar-es-Salaam.

“I was not expecting any telephone call," he recalls.

As it turned out, Kenya Football Federation (KFF) secretary-general Chris Obure, also a former Harambee Stars player, was at the other end of the line from Nairobi.

Kenya was set to do battle against hosts Tanzania in an epic finale of the regional Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) Senior Challenge Cup at the National Stadium in the coming hours.

As it turned out, Obure was delivering a message of goodwill from President Moi.

Obure informed me that the President had called to know if we needed anything before the match because Kenyans were really excited and only a win would do,” said Abbas, who is considered among the best goalkeepers ever in East Africa.

Moi had also secured a chartered Kenya Airways flight to ferry about 200 fans to Tanzania to cheer on Harambee Stars.

The fans included a high-powered delegation consisting of cabinet ministers and assistant ministers Jeremiah Nyagah, Martin Shikuku, Moses Mudavadi, Kenneth Matiba and Paul Ngei.

“Chartering a flight was a serious matter back then and it required intervention from top government officials for clearance,” said Abbas, who also worked as a stores clerk with the national carrier.

“The ministers came to the dressing room before the game and told us point blank we had to win because the President would be very disappointed with another result.”

Kenya beat Tanzania 1-0 in that exciting final at a fully packed 35,000-seater venue that was almost exclusively partisan. James Omah scored the lone goal.

“The chartered flight flew us back home and directly to State House. We were treated to a sumptuous meal alongside entertainment. The sight of Kenyans celebrating would make the President very happy. He referred to each of us as national heroes, and ordered the civil servants to proceed on a two-week paid leave.”

Two years earlier, a second-string Harambee Stars had lost 3-2 to Malawi in the final of Senior Challenge Cup.

President Moi and vice-president Mwai Kibaki were in attendance at a packed City Stadium.

“His (President Moi) convoy left immediately after the final whistle. We were later told he was very disappointed with the result. He was a very passionate football fan and everyone in the team felt we had let him down," Abbas told Nation Sport.

Stars played against Malawi without the services of eight first-team players.

This after Gor Mahia withdrew all their players from the team camp, including Kenya's first-choice keeper Dan Odhiambo, right back Dan Oduor “Cobra” and stopper John “Bobby” Ogolla.

The club refused to release these players so as to concentrate on a continental cup (Cup Winners Cup) final versus Cameroonian side Canon Yaounde.

Worse, reported bad blood between the then KFF hierarchy and Kenya Breweries Ltd chairman Kenneth Matiba resulted in the Ruaraka-based football club withdrawing its players from the national team on the eve of the tournament.

The affected first-team players include Elly Adero, Peter Odera, and James Ojiambo.

The loss to Malawi ultimately cost Stars Polish coach Gregory Palakov his job and Marshal Mulwa took over. Abbas, now 68, says Moi became a personal friend.

“We met again after beating Malawi in the semi-finals of the 1987 All Africa Games in Nairobi. He offered each of the players Sh10,000. I purchased a piece of land with that money.”

“President Moi changed the face of football in Kenya. Anytime we were struggling on the pitch or things were not going our way, I would tell my players ‘please let’s not let mzee down’ and somehow they would get some energy from somewhere to fight on.”

Besides the national team, Abbas also enjoyed a successful decade-long stint at top-flight club AFC Leopards. He had previously turned out for Mombasa’s Liverpool and finished his career after four years at another top-flight team Reunion.

Abbas has four children. He tips his last born Ahmad Mahmoud, a student at Egerton University and also a goalkeeper, to follow in his footsteps.