▪️Brilliant Kenyan boxers displayed a splendid show in the BFK Nairobi County Schools, Junior and Youth tournament but lack of clear pathway at the regional and continental level stifles their growth
▪️Sensational Ellah Demesi maintains unbeaten streak over Kibra Youth clubmate Anastacia Mutindi
August 16, 2026
Kenyan youngsters displayed impressive boxing at the BFK Nairobi County schools, junior, and youth tournament finals on August 15, 2026 with Senegal-bound Ellah Demesi maintaining her rise to the top.
The four-day event, held at the Umoja One Boxing and Arts Club, proved that the country’s grassroots initiative Ndondi Mashinani is thriving.
However, beneath the celebratory cheers lies a sobering reality: these young fighters face a dead-end pathway due to a critical lack of regular continental junior and youth tournaments across Africa. It’s the same situation at the regional level.
The highlight of the day belonged to the sensational youth international southpaw, Ellah Demesi who is among the African boxers to feature in the Olympic Youth Games later this year in Dakar, Senegal. Demesi scored her fourth consecutive victory over her Kibra Youth Club teammate, Anastacia Mutindi, in a thrilling light-flyweight bout.
“I didn’t box well today but I accept defeat, it’s part of my growth,” Anastacia told boxersworld.co.ke
She put up a commendable performance but her lower work rate contributed to the defeat against the sharper and busier Demesi who scored more often than her teammate.
Not to be outshone by her elder sister Demesi, Ramsey Wahu outpointed Slay Jafaro of Kangemi in the 38-41kg category. Ramsey is the one who introduced Demesi to boxing when she convinced her to accompany him to watch a local event Kibra and from that day Demesi was hooked to boxing.
In other highlights, a thrilling bantamweight encounter saw Kasarani Youth’s Eugene Njoroge outpoint southpaw Douglas Omondi of Kibra Youth Club. The latter fought with an injured left hand. It was Njoroge’s second victory over Omondi.
“I’ll beat him again if we meet in our third fight,” boasted Njoroge to the amazement of Kasarani Youth Club coach Benjamin Musyoka, one of Kenya’s top grassroots coaches, producing international boxing brothers, Benedict and Chris Juma.
Good Shepherd of Thailand Club maintained his ascendancy with a perfect points win over Victor Mwangi of Kasarani Youth in the minimumweight class.
A form three student at Clay City Mixed Secondary School, Good Shepherd dominated his opponent for the better part of the fight with accurate jabs and timely combinations.
“I’m happy taking part in this tournament again to gauge my performance,” said Good Shepherd. He’s eyeing a job in KDF or Kenya Police on completion of his studies, and intends to improve on his boxing further by taking part in the Nairobi league.
Talented junior Kallah Said Abdullah aka Gaddafi of Mathare North was unlucky this time, injuring his thumb in the second round against points victor Gedion Ekal of Kasarani Youth in the 31kg weight class.
“I’ll come back stronger in the next tournament,” said a confident Kallah who is known for his effective right uppercut delivered with clinical accuracy.
Sanchez Maina of Kibra Youth was not impressed with the officiating in his fight against Floyd Kimani of Mathare North.
“He started crying in the third round because he was bleeding from the nose, that’s why they gave him the fight,” Maina told boxersworld.co.ke
However, Kimani disputed Maina’s complaint, arguing that despite the fact that the fight was stopped in the third round he was leading on points.
Kimani is right. That’s exactly what happened. He was ahead on points.
Thailand’s Cynthia Waringa outpointed clubmate Tamasha Wanjiru who was taking part in her first competitive event.
Head coach of Thailand Githurai John Ochieng aka Chea was impressed by Wanjiru’s debut performance.
“She proved herself today. I’m happy because convincing girls to join boxing is not easy. Wanjiru will improve with time,” said Ochieng.
Ochieng and fellow coaches including Edward Ogweno aka Dimbuts of Kibra Youth, Kasarani Youth’s Benjamin Musyoka, Raphael Kamuya aka Kamwana of Mbotela BC, Mike Mungai of Umoja BC, former international Maurice “Kawata” Maina and Sospeter Sosman were all unanimous: talent abounds in Kenya boxing following the impressive show of the youngsters drawn from various clubs in Nairobi popularly referred to as the Mecca of boxing in Kenya.
Yet, beneath the cheers and the flashing gloves lies a burning question for the Boxing Federation of Kenya (BFK) and their talent-scouting Ndondi Mashinani initiative: Where do these youngsters go next?
While Europe, Asia, and the Americas boast packed calendars for school-age fighters, African boxing remains in a deep sleep. There is currently no official continental junior tournament. The African Youth Championships are a rare treat, held in Guinea in 2025 only after a long, frustrating pause.
Even regional tournaments are non-existent. For most of these kids, this annual event followed by the national junior and youth tournament in December have become an annual ritual. There is no pathway to regional and continental level.
Encouragingly however, in 2025, the inaugural African School Games took place from July 26 to August 5, 2025, in Annaba, Algeria. Organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), the historic event brought together nearly 2,700 young student-athletes from over 50 countries to compete in multiple developmental sports disciplines, including boxing, to foster grassroots continental talent.
It will be interesting to see whether ANOCA will maintain the African School Games.
Otherwise, the boxing future for African junior and youth boxers remains foggy with no clearcut pathway to regional and continental glory. Only a lucky few survive the drought to join Kenya’s elite national team, the Hit Squad and recruited by KDF, Police and Prisons. Others simply hang up their gloves, their potential wasted. They opt to continue with their education.
Kenya’s national team head coach Musa Benjamin watched the bouts at Umoja from the ringside, his pride mixed with deep frustration.
“We would love to see these boxers qualify to represent Kenya in the Africa Junior and Youth Championships, but those tournaments just do not exist,” Benjamin told boxersworld.co.ke.
“It is heartbreaking when you look at the packed tournament schedules for kids in Asia and Europe.
The Kenyan head coach blames the crisis on lazy leadership, financial constraints, infighting and lack of ambition among African boxing officials to improve the plight of the boxers. Musa accused some leaders of caring more about their own titles than the fighters themselves. His assertion is lent credence by the deplorable issues discussed in some Africa Whatsapp boxing forums which hardly focus on important continental boxing development except talking about leadership titles and petty squabbles.
Musa said Kenya even tried to spark local competition by reviving the historic Urafiki Cup (formerly Millington Drake Trophy and later Brunner’s/Urafiki) with Uganda and launching an East African schools, junior and youth boxing tournament. Both ideas died due to a total lack of interest from neighbouring countries.
“We have a very long way to go in Africa,” Benjamin admitted, urging African federations to introduce more inter-club and inter-country contests in their regions.
To keep his young fighters from rusting, the head coach hinted at a backup plan: a fresh dual-meet tournament between Nairobi and Nakuru counties.
“Without it, these bright young stars will have nothing left to fight for until the national championships in December,” said Musa, his sentiments exposing lack of a structured boxing programme in Africa. Coupled with financial constraints facing most African countries, regular continental and regional boxing for elite and the young boxers – for now – remains a pipedream.
