From Rejection to Redemption: Green Commandos Star's Journey

The top scorer at this year’s KSSSA national games in Thika did not arrive at the summit on a smooth, straight road. He finished with six goals and dragged his school back to the regional showpiece, but his story is rooted in something far less glamorous: being chased away from the Green Commandos youth team for indiscipline and briefly walking away from football altogether.

His words are blunt, and so is the memory.

"My football life started very early as a young kid. It got to a place where I did not want to play again, so I got a guardian who held my hand and returned me to football. I trusted myself and said, If I come back, I must perform and I will make it," he explained.

At one point, he simply stopped. No training. No matches. No Green Commandos.

"I had left football because a lot was going on. The first time I was in, I was chased because I was indisciplined, but I came back to the team and apologised and continued to play," he added.

That apology changed everything. Guided back into the Under-12 setup by his guardian, he swallowed his pride, returned to the youth ranks and started again from the bottom. The turning point was not a goal or a trophy, but a decision: to grow up.

From that moment, the versatile youngster — comfortable on either flank in attack and equally at home at left-back — began to rebuild himself. He chose to treat every session as a chance to sharpen both his game and his character.

"That was at the Under-12 team. The thing that has changed me a lot is that I decided to focus more on football and education, so I need to train hard, and the training is what is helping me to gain a lot."

The results soon spilled onto the pitch.

In 2024, still only in Form One, the Kakamega County and Western Region winner broke into the school’s senior side. He scored more than five goals in the sub-county games, powering the team into the county stage and announcing himself as far more than a promising kid in training bibs.

Those performances opened another door. He earned a promotion to the Green Commandos senior team, then playing in the FKF Division One league. While many of his age-mates were just settling into secondary school life, he was already making his debut in Kenya’s third tier.

The rise did not stop there. His form brought a call-up to the Talanta Hela Under-19 team, a key step in the country’s talent pathway. Yet the biggest shift in his game came when the national flag landed on his chest.

With the Kenya Under-17 national team at the CECAFA Under-17 AFCON qualifiers in Addis Ababa, coaches moved him into a new role: left wing-back. It forced him to see football from a different angle.

He played every single minute of the campaign, never substituted, tasked with defending his flank and then surging forward to launch attacks from deep. For a player known for dangerous crosses, whipped corners, powerful runs and a fierce shot, that education was priceless.

"At the national team, I used to play as a wing-back. I did not play as an attacking player. So the experience I got there was valuable when I came here. I was pushed to play offensively, and so I used the experience I got as a left-back and brought it forward," he said.

That blend now defines him. The defensive discipline and positional awareness learned with Kenya’s Under-17s now sit underneath his attacking instincts for the Green Commandos, turning him into a more complete, two-way threat.

The timing of that evolution matters. At the FEASSSA games, the KSSSA national champions have stumbled badly out of the blocks. Two matches, two defeats: one to Uganda’s Kyadondo Secondary School, another to Tanzania’s Urambo Secondary School.

One group match remains, against Bukedea Comprehensive of Uganda. It is not a decider for a title. It is a test of character.

For the school’s leading scorer, it is also a chance to show how far he has travelled from that day he was thrown out of the youth team. He cannot erase the slow start to the FEASSSA campaign, but he can still drive his side to finish the group with maximum points — and prove, once again, that his story is no longer about walking away, but about how he responds when the odds turn against him.