Basketball stars Kenya never sees
By Bosco Magare, March 8, 2025Kenya’s grassroots basketball scene is failing to nurture future stars, with tournaments prioritising results over player development, leaving the national teams struggling on the international stage like in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) tournament.
National women’s basketball coach George Mayienga has sounded the alarm, blaming the lack of structured talent identification and youth development for the country’s dismal performances in FIBA competitions.
From Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) games to corporate-sponsored 3×3 tournaments, young talents remain undiscovered, a crisis that continues to stifle the nation’s basketball growth.
Mayienga spoke to a PD Wikendi’s writer from Egypt about the Lionesses’ dismal performance in the AfroBasket 2025 Zone 5 qualifiers.
Upsetting results
The Lionesses suffered losses of 57-78 and 69-89 against Uganda and South Sudan (SSD), respectively, and only managed to defeat Burundi 87-53, finishing fourth in the qualifiers, which were won by Uganda.
Sounding like a frustrated man, Mayienga blamed Kenya’s lack of watertight youth development basketball structures for the country’s poor FIBA performances.
He noted that the solution to Kenya’s struggles includes developing grassroots youth talent through tournaments like the KSSSA games and the Kenya Universities Sports Association (KUSA).
“KSSSA games lack effective structures for player absorption into national teams, which continue to lack a competitive edge against the world’s best,” Mayienga lamented.
“During the 2009 KSSSA games in the Mt Kenya Region, out of individual passion, I identified a talented Nyeri High School basketball player, Avin Nyongesa, who alone scored 30 points in a game, yet his school did not qualify for the KSSSA national games. We tend to focus on the win-win aspect rather than player development,” Mayienga complained.
“I told him that once he successfully completed his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), he should contact me. Avin got a good KCSE grade, and I arranged a scholarship for him at the United States International University (USIU) Nairobi,” he disclosed.
He added, “Avin ended up receiving his first men’s national team (Morans) call-up between 2011 and 2015. Later, he got injured and stopped playing basketball. Today, Alvin works for the Kenya Revenue Authority in Mombasa.”
“At Magadi Primary School court in Kisumu City’s Manyatta estate, I identified a talented player, Valentine Otieno, aged between 8 and 10 years old. I took him to the city, bought him playing shoes and basketball gear,” he revealed.
Former Thunder coach Emmanuel Ochieng’ concurred with Mayienga, stating, “KSSSA games emphasise winning at all costs for schools.
Schools lack player development budgets. The Kenya Academy of Sports (KAS) should establish youth development camps similar to the Olympic Centres established by the Kenya Football Federation in the 1970s, extending down to the grassroots sub-county level.”
Ochieng recalled, “Kenya Science College (KSC) used to train sports teachers and had strong player development pathways.”
Weighing in on the matter, Kisumu County KSSSA Secretary George Osura averred, “KSSSA lacks concrete data on talented players, and KAS has only done well in talent identification for football, not basketball.”
The writer also sought Kisumu, Manyatta’s Adili Sports Academy co-founder and head coach, Nelson Oloo’s comment, and he noted that most parents “frustrate early identification of talented youth basketball players who abound at the grassroots. Parents urge their children to focus more on academics rather than sports”.
“Mayienga identified a young basketball player, Otieno, popularly known as ‘Kipchumba.’ Valery, now in Grade 8, won a tournament Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last week,” Oloo said.
Proprietors of three Nairobi City academies (Vikapu Elite, Far Best Basketball and Little Prince Basketball Academies) Zedekiah ‘Zeddy’ Otieno, Shem Oloo as well as Denis Orem, respectively, agreed with their fellow tacticians.
Rallying call
They advised the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) and the government to establish structures outside the confines of academies, within schools and grassroots community ecosystems.
They also petitioned the media to allocate more airtime to sports instead of politics to motivate youth and called for the establishment of an age-tiered youth development programme from Under-14 to Under-20 for consistency in developing formidable national team players.
KAS Acting Director of Talent Development James Theuri said the sports agency deploys scouts during KSSSA games from county to national levels to identify talent for training at KAS’s elite camp in Nairobi, in partnership with KSSSA.
On his part,KAS Talent Development Officer Steve Ojwang said, “At the elite camp, identified players participate in competitive tournaments to internalize their basketball skills. We undertake capacity-building for school coaches who have transitioned from playing. KAS is determined to bridge the existing talent identification gap,” Ojwang explained.