The Kenyan women boxers have made big strides since 1986 when the celebrated South African coach Eddie “Papa” Musi midwifed the birth of female boxing at Guru Nanak Secondary School in Nairobi brushing aside strong opposition from ABA’s bigwigs Peter Mwarangu and Stanley Wachanga
They are tigerish in attack, punching with ruthless precision and displaying eye-catching skillful boxing.
Meet the tough and mean Kenyan women boxers who have steadily risen to prove wrong the doubting Thomases who have been against female boxing.
When the late South African distinguished coach Eddie “Papa” Musi midwifed the birth of female boxing in 1986 at Guru Nanak Secondary School in Nairobi, he was treated like a mad man by some top officials of the Amateur Boxing Association of Kenya (ABA) among them national team head coach then Peter Mwarangu or Orango if you like and the small man with big ideas Stanley Wachanga, the association’s treasurer.
Musi, who was a mathematics and science teacher at Guru Nanak Secondary School, assembled seven schoolgirls, Nuru Said, Lucy Chepkosgei, Eudian Waringa, Hellen Kerubo, Josephine Nyacheo, Harriet Nyamboki and Pamela Kanaga to introduce female boxing in Kenya.
He migrated to Kenya in 1967 and fell in love with the warmth of the natives. Musi decided to settle in Kariobangi in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi.
Musi’s boxing passion saw him start the famous Kariobangi Boxing Club nicknamed Bangladesh.
As if that was not enough, Musi went on to introduce women’s boxing in Kenya, a move vehemently opposed by among others head coach of the national team at the time Peter Mwarangu who still harboured the machoism attitude of boxing being a man-only sport.
“We will not allow women boxing in Kenya,” said Mwarangu.
Curious at women’s involvement in boxing, I visited Musi in 1986 at Guru Nanak Secondary School for an interview with the seven pioneer female boxers who were students at the school. I was then working for the KANU-owned newspaper Kenya Times.
“We are using boxing as self defence and hoping to be in the ring soon, we watched the boys doing boxing and we developed interest,” Eudian Waringa told me.
“I’m very impressed on how they’ve responded, l’m trying to organise special contests for them,” said Musi who passed on in 2011.
Musi’s female boxers may not have realised their dreams but there was no stopping the growth of women’s boxing in Kenya.
For all their opposition to women’s boxing, the ABA barons eventually ate humble pie with a new team of more accommodative ABA officials in power led by chairman Samson Mugacha. They fully supported women’s boxing, culminating in Kenya’s maiden appearance in an international tournament in 2010 when a team of nine boxers entered Women’s World Championships in Barbados.
Industrious Alfred Analo aka Priest added more impetus on women’s boxing with the formation of Boxgirls community-based organisation using boxing to tackle life’s challenges and improve the life of the girl child.
Boxgirls has produced top boxers the likes of Andiego, Christine Ongare, Sarah Achieng, Emily Juma, Stacy Ayoma and Lencer Akinyi to mention but a few.
As Kenya looks forward to the Africa Zone 3 Championships from October 16-25, the Kenyan female boxers have made remarkable progress silencing the pessimists once and for all with some of them such as Corporal Veronica “Pioneer” Mbithe, Friza Anyango, Pauline Chege and Agnes Wambua landing jobs at KDF through boxing, thanks to the silent support of the unsung hero Colonel Paul Mungori, the kind-hearted gentleman from the slopes of Mt Kenya who was curious when he saw a young young girl from Dallas crying because she had no opponent to fight her at Uwanja wa Mbuzi in Kongowea, Mombasa in 2017.
“I looked at the innocent girl crying because she’s not fighting and decided I’ll support her join KDF, she’s a soldier material,” recalls Mungori.
That’s how Dallas Boxing Club boxer Veronica Mbithe became the first ever Kenyan female boxer to be recruited by KDF in 2018.
The charming and affectionate Mbithe, brought up in Landi Mawe, had to make tough choices. She earned a place in Kenya’s team to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games smartly outpointing her local rival Christine Ongare in the trials at Kaloleni Social Hall.
It was either Gold Coast or KDF for Mbithe. She wisely settled for the latter opting out of the Commonwealth Games.
Today Mbithe, who used to support her mum at their salon in Muthurwa Dallas, is the family’s bread winner, thanks to boxing which has transformed her life.
Mbithe is one of the Kenyan female boxers expected to set alight Kasarani Indoor Arena to improve on the brilliant showing of the Kenyan women at the 2022 Africa Zone 3 in Kinshasa where all the ten female boxers won medals including three historic golds by light-welterweight Teresia Wanjiru, welterweight Everline Akinyi and captain Liz Andiego, the doyen of women’s boxing in Kenya.
The other medallists in Kinshasa were flyweight Christine Ongare, lightweight Stacy Ayoma, light-middleweight Lorna Kusa and middleweight Elizabeth Akinyi all silver medals and bronze medallists, debutants flyweight Ann Wanjiru, bantamweight Alice Waiyego and featherweight Amina Martha.
The steady rise of the Kenyan female boxers saw Christine Ongare and Elizabeth Akinyi stamp their names in the annals of Kenya’s boxing history by becoming the first ever female boxers to win medals at an .international tournament . They both won bronze medals in the 2017 Africa Championships in Congo.Brazzaville, the first time women were incorporated in the continental event.
So far the Kenyan female boxers have won a total of 22 medals: four gold, nine silver and nine bronze medals with celebrated Andiego accounting for seven of the 22 medals.
Andiego, the first ever East African female boxer to take part in the Olympics in London 2012, is the face of boxing in East Africa. Her magnificent performance in the ring deserves more recognition from the government, and this should happen during the Africa Zone 3 Championships in Nairobi.
Andiego is aiming to overcome her rival DR Congo’s Marie Joelle to win her second consecutive gold medal in the regional tournament as she leads over 30 Kenyan boxers vying for the overall crown.
Boxing is Andiego’s life. Outside the ring, boxing is also useful to the women for self defence, and Andiego proved it in 2011.
The two-time Africa Championships silver medallist was on her way home after visiting her sister in Korogocho slums when two men confronted her unaware that was akin to throwing stones at an Army barracks. They must have been after her phone but they were surprised at Andiego standing her ground, knocking down one of them with a heavy right punch. Realizing Andiego was a wrong number they quickly did a Usain Bolt running away to avoid further humiliation from Andiego’s cruel fists.
All photos and design by Duncan Kuria aka Sugar Ray
