Chaos over player eligibility forced organisers to postpone the kick-off of the Nyanza regional secondary schools ball games in Kisumu, as officials moved swiftly to vet all athletes and block ineligible participants before today’s rescheduled start. 

In an exclusive interview on July 9, 2025, with People Daily, shortly after arriving at the competition venue in Kisumu City, Nyanza Regional Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) Secretary General Tom Thomas Odhiambo said, “The ball games were initially scheduled to kick off on, Wednesday, July 9, and instead we decided to devote the whole day to vetting athletes, identifying bona fide participants from schools, and weeding out ineligible participants. So, the regional games will start on Thursday, July 10, 2025.” 

Odhiambo explained that Nyanza regional secondary schools’ ball games officials decided to start the competition programme with vetting of athletes to avoid disruption of the games fixtures midstream through the filing of petitions by competing school teams once the games tip off. 

He also noted that the vetting exercise was introduced to curb the increasing cases of petitions filed by various school teams over the fielding of ineligible athletes by opponent school teams. 

Odhiambo stated that “over the years, petitions by various school teams ended up disrupting the regional competition. This year, there have also been several petitions filed by a number of school teams at both the sub-county and county levels.” 

“In Siaya, we had the case of Maranda High School moving to court after the school’s boys football team was not cleared by games officials to participate in the county games, since the entire team players had not been registered in the newly introduced Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) Players Information System (PIS) database,” Odhiambo recalled. 

He further stated, “Schools like Maranda did not register their football team players in the PIS and argued that the players are Kenyans and should just be allowed to compete during the Siaya county games. You see, schools like Maranda were introducing their own games regulations instead of adhering to KSSSA sports management rules.” 

He pointed out that elsewhere in Kisii County, the Sameta High School football team was also disqualified from playing at the county ball games following failure by the school to register players in the PIS database. 

Odhiambo added that “Kisii County will be represented in boys’ football at the Nyanza regional schools games by Nyagicha Secondary School football team. In Nyamira County, where last year’s regional games participants Matutu P.A.G Mixed Secondary football team was banned at the semis this year, the county will be represented by Gekendo Secondary’s football team at the Nyanza regional games.” 

The NSSSA Secretary General also cited Kisumu County as being plagued by cases of petitions, especially by boys’ football teams such as Kisumu Boys, Kisumu Day, and Onjiko, who were accused by opponent teams of allegedly fielding ineligible players at either sub-county or county levels. 

Odhiambo said to avoid similar cases coming up during the course and duration of the Nyanza regional schools ball games, NSSSA officials decided to vet, identify bona fide athletes, and isolate ineligible participants before the regional competition kicks off in earnest today at the following venues: Moi Stadium, Jomo Kenyatta Stadium in Mamboleo and other school-based sports grounds within Kisumu City. 

“Athletes from all secondary schools teams that qualified to compete in all the Nyanza regional ball games must be vetted afresh, and participants whose details were not captured in the Players Information System (PIS) database recently introduced by Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) will not be cleared to participate and compete at the games,” he explained.