Photo/FILE Football fan Isaac Juma during a past match, and right, receiving the award from KPL vice chairman Bob Munro.
By ODINDO AYIEKO oayieko@yahoo.co.uk
Posted Monday, June 27 2011 at 13:55
Posted Monday, June 27 2011 at 13:55
On a normal day, Jared Otieno Bonyo is a composed man selling second-hand clothes in Nairobi’s Gikomba market as his wife, Peris Amboi, takes computer lessons at the Multimedia College in the city.
But on the day Gor Mahia is playing, one may be excused for thinking Bonyo has lost his marbles. At his Kayole home, hours before the game, “Jaro Soldier”, as he is nicknamed, dons women’s stockings, a green skirt, a blouse to match, green sandals, and a mask.
To complete the female persona he has created, he carries a doll he has named “Raila 2012”. Then, armed with a vuvuzela, he heads to the stadium.
“My wife has no problem with my dress code. She knows that Gor Mahia flows in my veins,” he says. Jaro Soldier adopted “Raila 2012” last year during the promulgation of the new Constitution.
To him, the doll represents a new Kenya which, he says, Prime Minister Raila Odinga has fought hard for. “Raila is also the patron of Gor Mahia, so I have to take ‘Baby Raila’ with me to matches.”
To Bonyo, Gor Mahia is a movement and he a follower. “Everything else comes after Gor Mahia. I am ready to go without food to attend a Gor match,” says Bonyo, who fans refer at as the male diva because of the way he dresses.
Gor Mahia has a women’s fan club called K’Ogirlo Divas. “I do this for the love of Gor Mahia. I am not insane. It’s just a craze for the club.”
Jaro Soldier’s friend Evans Otieno Ouma dons a white pinstriped suit. Wearing a green hat, he unfurls the Gor Mahia flag and holds it aloft when the club’s anthem is being sung.
He lowers it only after the game. His nom de guerre is “Commander-in-Chief of the Green Army” — the army being Gor fans.
But Gor does not have the monopoly of a cult-like following. Frank Kunene, a former footballer with the Nakuru Youth Olympics club, is a Sofapaka football club fanatic from head to toe.
Painting himself in blue and white, the colours of Sofapaka, and wearing only a pair of shorts, he leaves his house for the stadium. He is always bare-chested, regardless of the weather.
Because Kenyan clubs do not have mascots, Kunene paints himself in Sofapaka colours.
“When Sofapaka has a game, I buy paint and spend the whole morning painting my body, then I sit in the sun to dry, after which I take a matatu to the stadium.
“Many people ask to take a photo with me,” says Kunene, who copied the idea of painting himself in club colours from veteran fanatic Isaac Juma.
Juma, now 41, remains one of the most visible Kenyan football fans. He emblazons himself with Kenya’s national colours when the national side, Harambee Stars, is playing a match. A pot completes the picture.
Juma is always there to cheer the team and entertain the spectators while at the same time passing important and informative messages to the people.
Although he is not among the high and mighty of the game, his face is known to many. Newspaper vendor Juma, alias “AFC”, travels far and wide across the country to cheer his team during Premier League matches and never misses Harambee Stars local games.
The father of nine has been cheering football for close to three decades and is not planning to retire soon. He was an ardent fan of Abaluhya Football Club (AFC) in his youth in the early 1980s. That is how he acquired his nickname, “AFC”.
He paints his body colourfully with messages about HIV/Aids and patriotism. Lately, in the wake of the post-election violence that polarised Kenyans along ethnic lines, Juma has taken up forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation as part of his campaign.
He says that in yesteryears, Gor Mahia and AFC were the most popular teams in local football and he chose to support the latter because it was his community’s team. But with the changing local football scene, he is now a diehard Harambee Stars fan.
Because of his love for the game and the national team, there are times when Juma borrows money for fare to the stadium, where he is usually among the first people to arrive, in full war paint. “AFC” always carries the Kenyan flag, which he proudly waves as he entertains the crowds with his antics.
Occasionally well-wishers tip him for his troubles. Juma also rents out his services to other forums. During electioneering, politicians hire him to entertain and pull crowds.During international matches when other teams are threatening, boasting, and intimidating their opponents with juju talk, our own “AFC” is there to cheer our teams the best way he knows how, easing the tension when we the team is losing or a game has gone down to the wire.
“Around such times, I make a lot of money and go back home a happy man,” he says. Fredrick Muyangu a.k.a Spiderman is also a Harambee Stars fanatic.
He may not be Tobey Maguire, who acts as Peter Parker in the Spiderman movie, but Muyangu is the Kenyan version of the American superhero.
He has gained fame for his antics when cheering Harambee Stars. Most people know Muyangu only as the man in the Spiderman costume.
Of course he cannot defy gravity like the superhero does in the movies, but the Kenyan Spiderman has become a major attraction off the pitch.
“Other countries have their jujumen. Nigeria has its travelling fans band, which plays throughout the game. In Kenya we have nothing and if there is no goal, the fans do little to enjoy themselves on the terraces,” says Muyangu.
The cheerleader acknowledges the role that the Isukuti group and Isaac Juma, the self-styled Kenya jujuman, play in entertaining fans, but he says he wants to bring a new dimension to football cheering.
So, during Harambee Stars matches, Muyangu leaves his Embakasi home for Nyayo Stadium in the Spiderman gear.
Muyangu attended Embakasi Primary School and later Shauri Moyo Secondary School, but dropped out in Form Two due to lack of fees.
He became a face painter, decorating children’s faces at birthday parties and other social events, and was a part-time clown, entertaining children at social places.
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