SHAFFI BAKARI’S SON HEADING TO ALGERIA FOR SCHOOLS GAMES
▪️Lukeman Shaffi will represent Kenya in the boxing event with Sonia Atieno
A 13-year-old pupil at New Wisdom Preparatory School in Mombasa, Lukeman “Jibaba” Shaffi, has finally fulfilled his cherished ambition of flying out of the country to represent Kenya at an international tournament.
Lukeman and national novices and intermediate light-welterweight champion, Sonia Atieno from Kisumu County are in Kenya’s team for the inaugural African Schools Games scheduled for Algiers, Algeria, from July 26-August 6.
Lukeman, 41kg, and Atieno will take part in the boxing tournament with bright hopes of eventually graduating to the elite national team.
The teenager is the son of one of Kenya’s top international boxers, Shaffi Bakari, a bronze medallist at the 2024 AFBC Men’s and Women’s Boxing Championships in Kinshasa, DR Congo.
The two junior boxers will be handled by the head coach of Kenya’s national team, Musa Benjamin, who is also an accomplished junior and youth boxing coach. Benjamin has previously travelled with Kenya’s teams to the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2008 and 2011.
It’s a dream come true for Lukeman, a grade six pupil at New Wisdom Preparatory School in Mombasa. He started boxing in 2022 under coach Issack Kweyu Makokha aka Izoo who used to train him at his house before moving to Legacy Gym in Bamburi.
“I’m really proud of my son as a boxer and a parent. I didn’t expect my son to emulate me so soon,” says an elated Shaffi Bakari who first represented Kenya in the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games in the British Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man.
“Lukeman has always been telling us he wants to be like me fly out of Kenya to fight in big tournaments,” Bakari told boxersworld.co.ke
On his son’s prospects in Algeria, Bakari says:”I believe he’ll come back with a medal. I thank Allah for enabling him to make it in the junior team that’s travelling to Algeria. He has even broken my record because I started representing Kenya when I was 18 and he has done it at 13 years old, he has worked hard, and he is now under the head coach of our national team. I believe he will learn a lot from Musa Benjamin.
“I also thank his sponsor Ace Standard for financing his training at Legacy Gym in Bamburi.”
Lukeman’s mother, Saida Salama, is over the moon and she can’t believe her son is travelling out of the country to represent The Kenya schools team.
“As a parent, I’m happy to see my son realising his dream of following in his father’s footsteps, we are so happy and proud of him,” says Saida, adding: “He has always been telling me he wants to fight for Kenya like his father and win medals, today Allah has made his dream come true we wish him the very best of luck in Algeria, Pwani juuuu!!”
Bakari says Lukeman likes eating ugali and chapati which he believes give him more strength in the ring.
“I told him you’ll meet tall opponents in Algeria and you’re short, and he said he’s not scared of anybody because they have two hands and two legs like him,” says Shaffi currently employed by the Kenya Police. It’s his boxing talent which landed him a job in the service. They poached him at Mwanandondi Boxing Club where he was being coached by a former international champion, Lemmy “Cobra” Katibi.
Bakari represented Kenya’s elite national team for the first time in the 2017 Africa Championships in Congo Brazzaville winning a bronze medal in the light-flyweight class and later in Hamburg, Germany for the World Championships. His most significant achievement so far was at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco, where he won a silver medal in the flyweight division.
The head coach of Kisumu County, Vincent Odongo, is equally impressed by his 18-year-old boxer Sonia Atieno, who is travelling to Algeria for the inaugural African Schools Games.
In a statement, Odongo says: “On behalf of all Kisumu coaches we are proud and happy to see that one of our girls, Sonia whom we nurtured so well, is now at the top of the bar representing Kenya, we are so confident that she is going to emerge the winner.
“Sonia herself is positive and grateful at the same time, she said that it is a life time experience going to Algeria to raise the Kenyan flag high. She urges our young girls to join boxing and even reminded them that what a man can do, a woman can do it better through hard work, determination and prayers.”
Good luck to Lukeman and Sonia in Algeria!
