NENEZ BOXING ARCHIVE: The late Philip “PC” Mathenge, who passed on this month, shot to prominence in the 1972 Kenya Open tournament at Pumwani Social Hall, Nairobi

NENEZ BOXING ARCHIVE: The late Philip “PC” Mathenge, who passed on this month, shot to prominence in the 1972 Kenya Open tournament at Pumwani Social Hall, Nairobi.

Philip “PC” Mathenge was one of the rising stars who announced their arrival in the competitive and exceptionally challenging boxing scene then in the East African nation during the 1972 Kenya Open Championships at Pumwani Social Hall.

He punched his way to the finals outpointing Mombasa’s Yunis Sebby in a thrilling light-welterweight bout.

In addition to Mathenge and Sebby, among other newcomers who made their presence felt were coach Eddie “Papa” Musi’s sensation who shook legengary Philip Waruinge in the Munich Olympics trials, George Oduori named the Best Boxer for putting up a textbook show in the featherweight finals, light-flyweight Peter Ndirangu and another new talent from Nakuru ABC lightweight Edward Kinuthua who caused an upset by defeating fancied Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kamau Mbugua in the semi-finals and then beat Sammy Kirangu in the finals.

After the Kenya Open, the next big event was the Lagos African Games trials at Pumwani Social Hall. Mathenge was among the boxers selected in the crowded light-welterweight division that had an array of strong boxers among them Yunis Sebby, Boniface Kahoro, and long-serving international Alex Omwomo aka Wachawe or if you like Jack Malloy.

Mathenge was however unsuccessful in the African Games trials. Omwomo, who was beaten by Yunis Sebby in the Kenya Open, bounced back to clinch the Lagos ticket for the 1973 African Games with a hard-fought points win in the finals over Kenya Navy sailor Boniface Kahoro now based in the USA.

Mathenge may not have made it in Kenya’s team for the African Games but his impressive boxing had his opponents in the light-welterweight berth sit up and take notice. They all knew the smart Nakuru boxer – a busy bee in the ring with a repertoire of non-stop onslaught and a smashing jab – was waiting in the wings to don the national vest.

It was not easy though to penetrate through to the Kenya team as Mathenge realised due to the stiff competition during that Golden Era in Kenya boxing.

For the inaugural Urafiki Trophy first leg match against Uganda in May 1973, it was Boniface Kahoro who was selected in the light-welterweight berth.

Others in the Kenya team included Prisons Boxing Club light-flyweight debutant Mohamed Hassan, flyweight George Findo, bantamweight Billy Kiremi, featherweight George Oduori, welterweight John Opiyo, light-middleweight David Attan, middleweight Joseph Kabegi, light-heavyweight Peter Dula and heavyweight Fred “Sachi” Sabat. Urafiki Trophy replaced Brunner-Urafiki Cup formerly Millington Drake Trophy contest between Kenya and Uganda.

The Ugandans, then the reigning Commonwealth Games and Africa champions, hammered Kenya 8-3 bouts at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium. Among the highlights, light-flyweight Baker Muwanga – featuring in his second international tournament after winning bronze in Romania – outpointed Kenya’s Mohammed Hassan, featherweight George Oduori lost to Ayub Kalule and light-heavyweight Mathias Ouma edged out Peter Dula 3-2 at light-heavyweight while Kenya’s heavyweight Fred Sabat stopped debutant Ocen in the first round.

Mathenge had another shot at the national team during the Fescaaba trials at the Desai Memorial Hall but was KO’d in the first round by Karilus Owino of Breweries.

As the national team embarked on preparations for the return leg match of the Urafiki Trophy against Uganda in November, 1973, the Amateur Boxing Association of Kenya, under the chairmanship of Brigadier Cromwell Mkungusi and Secretary-General Cornelius Monteiro, named 24 boxers to go into residential training at the Railways Training College (now Railways Training Institute) with Ali Akubasu picked as coach and trainer Eddie “Papa” Musi. Railways Training Institute supported the ABA with full board accommodation while Breweries sponsored the return leg match.

Mathenge was in the provisional team of 24 boxers with Prisons teammate Kamau Mbugua in the light-welterweight class. Mbugua moved up to pave way for George Oduori in the lightweight division. In the selection trials for Kenya vs Uganda match at Prisons Gym which mostly featured two rounds, Mbugua fought Mathenge with Mbugua winning the nod of the selectors.

Steve Muchoki, middleweight Mohammed Abdallah Kent and heavyweight Sylvester Onyango were the newcomers. Muchoki beat Peter Ndirangu, Kent had an edge over Joseph Kabegi and John Kibe of the Army and Sylvester Onyango was preferred to Sabat.

While Muchoki and Kent made successful debuts against Uganda with Kent scoring an upset points win over the highly regarded Mustapha Wasajja, Onyango was beaten by Ben Masanda. George Oduori defeated Ayub Kalule 3-2 and Kamau Mbugua was KO’d by Vitalis Bbege in the second round of their light-welterweight duel. Kenya beat Uganda 6-5 bouts but the Ugandans won the new Urafiki Trophy by an aggregate of 35-31 points victory.

Two weeks after the Kenya vs Uganda encounter, Mathenge was back in the ring in the final Commonwealth Games trials against Uganda’s former international Peter Odhiambo who had returned home to Kenya and joined the Army. Odhiambo outpointed Mathenge in the finals but it was Mathenge eventually selected because Odhiambo was not eligible having previously represented Uganda’s national team and had not stayed in Kenya over one year.

The Soviet Union national team then came calling for the Jamhuri celebrations tournament in December, 1973. The European champions at the time first walloped Kenya 6-2 bouts at the City Stadium, flyweight George Findo and light-heavyweight Peter Dula the only two Kenyan winners.

Mombasa, Kenya’s beautiful Coastal city was the next destination for the visitors, and that’s when Mathenge finally made his international debut in the second match in Mombasa, losing his lightweight bout to southpaw Rovenbaum.

Mathenge carried the fight to the Soviet boxer in the first round which ended in a cut on Rovenbaum’s nose. The Soviet boxer recovered his poise in the remaining two rounds to carry the day. Though he lost, Mathenge put up a remarkable performance that gave the ABA of Kenya and fans more hope as focus switched to the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand in January.

Most machine guns fire between 500 to 1000 rounds per minute. Indeed, Mathenge was on fire in the Commonwealth Games with his signature non-stop flurries against his opponents, prompting a New Zealand radio commentator to coin the nickname Machine Gun for the aggressive Kenyan boxer who was a soldier with the Kenya Defence Forces.

Mathenge first outpointed Canada’s Michael Briere in the last 16 and saw off England’s Thomas Donn in the quarter-finals before going down on points to Guyana’s Anthony Martey to settle for a bronze medal. Other three Kenyan medallists were gold medallist Steve Muchoki with bantamweight Isaac Maina and featherweight Sammy Mbogwa collecting bronze medals.

The 1975 season saw the rise of promising featherweight Patrick “Mont” Waweru, bantamweight Napunyi Oduori, light-welterweights Ali “Ojukwu” Athumani and Kamau “Pipino” Wanyoike who caused a major upset in the preliminaries of Inter-Services tournament at Police Pavillion South C.

Boxing for Prisons, Wanyoike, who won the junior bantamweight title in 1973 at Pumwani Social Hall, shocked Mathenge with a deserved points win to make it to the finals.

Interestingly, Mathenge and Pipino were good buddies out of the ring, and sparred several times when Mathenge was at Prisons before moving to KDF.

“I knew PC’s style very well, what I did was to be faster than him and use my footwork moving in the right direction, he was poor at hitting a moving target,” Pipino, now a farmer at his rural home in Komothai, Kiambu Country, told boxersworld.co.ke in an interview.

Mathenge bounced back forcefully in 1976 winning light-welterweight gold medal in the East and Central Africa Championships at the KICC in Nairobi and qualified for the Montreal Olympics.

Kenya topped in the Fescaaba tournament with nine gold, a silver and bronze followed by Tanzania and Ethiopia. Uganda and Zambia pulled out due to lack of funds. In the finals, Mathenge outpointed Tanzania’s Lucas Musomba.

The rivalry between Mathenge and Wanyoike Pipino was renewed in the 1978 African Games trials at Desai Memorial Hall. This time around, Pipino was more polished than in their first encounter in 1975. The southpaw Pipino was so swift and fast dominating all the three rounds. It was sad seeing Mathenge losing again to the younger Pipino but that’s sports.

You win some and lose some. Luckily enough, the selectors recognized Mathenge’s potential and moved him up to welterweight in the Kenya team named for the African Games in Algiers, Algeria. Mathenge proved himself, bringing home one of the two bronze medals with bantamweight Douglas Maina.

Pipino and middleweight Stephen “Black Bomber” Moi won gold medals while light-flyweight Steve Muchoki, featherweight Napunyi Oduori, lightweight Michael Mwangi and heavyweight Joseph Kabegi returned home with silver medals.

Mathenge’s last major assignment with the national team was at the 1979 Africa Championships in Libya where he fought his way to the finals, dropping a suspicious points defeat to Libya’s Salah el Mehri in the finals and was content with a silver medal.

Kenya won the overall title in Libya with four gold medals (Sande Odanda, George Findo, Ali Athumani and Abdulrahman Athuman), two silvers (David “Wonderboy” Gacheru and Philip Mathenge) and one bronze medal by bantamweight Napunyi Oduori.

Kenya’s first and the only world amateur champion Steve “Destimo” Muchoki described Mathenge as an amiable teammate in the national team.

“PC was a very friendly person and an intelligent boxer. l recall when we were preparing for the 1974 world championships in Havana, I sparred severally with him and learned quite a lot from Mathenge especially how to fight with a southpaw as well as ducking and straight jabs,” said Muchoki who was one of the top boxers to attend Mathenge’s burial.

“He was not selfish and shared freely whatever he knew with us, he was not agile in his movements and not a fighter. I can say he also contributed to my success in Havana.”

I first met Mathenge at Prisons Gym when he joined the service in 1972 from the famous Nakuru ABC, and we became good buddies.

Watching him sparring with some of the top internationals at Prisons, it was obvious PC was not just your ordinary boxer. He was destined for the big stage.

Mathenge was among several of Nakuru boxers who moved to Prisons in search of greener pastures, and later switched to Kenya Defence Forces.

He was very much at home at Prisons with some of Nakuru doyens such as Olympic Games bronze medallist Sammy Mbogwa, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kamau Mbugua, Olympic Games quarter-finalist and Africa champion John Nderu, Peter Manene and John Kamau, all of whom were employed by Prisons in the 1960s.

Mathenge joined Prisons almost the same time with another Nakuru product John “Fyatuka” Ng’ang’a.

The late Mathenge was buried on February 12, 2025 at his home in Nakuru in Kenya’s Rift Valley Region.

Fare thee well our brave comrade. You played your part in the ring and brought up your children well as a responsible father.