Why Coach Owino wants clear-out of ‘old’ Kenya Lionesses

By Philip Onyango

Kenya women's basketball team head coach Ronnie Owino has warned of an impending clear-out of the team to rebuild afresh.

The former Kenya international reckons this is the immediate option for the country in order to regain its lost glory.

Speaking about his plans for the first time time since the Kenya women's team, christened Lionesses, returned from the Afrobasket tournament in Senegal, in August last year, Owino also vindicated the Kenya Basketball Federation fro the Dakar fiasco, saying they treated the team very well.

He said the federation fulfilled all the promises they made contrary to a video that went viral when the team was in Senegal showing players claiming they were mistreated by the federation.

According to Owino, the team was treated even better than their male counterparts who went ahead to win silver medal at the AfroCan championship in Bamako, Mali in June last year.

He wondered loud what their their complaints were about.

"We seriously need to rebuild the women national team by bringing in under-23 and under-18 players if Kenya is to return to the World Championships as was the case in 1994 in Australia," said Owino.

The accomplished former point guard said he was not happy that only Kenya and Senegal had the oldest squads as opposed to their opponents especially Egypt and Tunisia, whose average age of players was 23 years.

The Lionesses players that featured in the tourney in Dakar, Senegal Shani Silalei (33 years), Vilma Achieng (27), Mercy Wanyama (28), Belinda Okoth (33), Betty Kananu (28), Georgia Adhiambo (28), Annrose Atieno (30), Hilda Indasi (35),Samba Mjomba (35), Debra Obunga (30 years).

The team had an average age of 30.7 years with half the players 30 years or above.

According to Owino, who is a Fiba coach's instructor and doubles up as the Strathmore University ladies basketball coach, Kenya has the talent to compete with the top African countries.

But he was emphatic that retaining the current squad would remain a pipe dream to compete and defeat the best in Africa.

He said younger players needed to be injected into the team.

"Yes, someone might argue that Senegal won the championships with the oldest player in the tournament. However, Kenya, with an old squad lost all their matches. But I want it to be understood that all Senegalese players were professionals who play in professional leagues abroad and therefore brought with them that much needed experience unlike Kenya. All our players featured in the local league," said Owino.

On the video produced by the national women team players that went viral, Owino said he was not aware at all that there were such plans to shoot a video.

"I was shocked to learn that the players had shot a video complaining of mistreatment in Dakar which I was personally not aware of because the KBF even went out of their way to give the team some stipend of Sh10, 000 each before departure to Senegal which was not even given to the Morans team which had gone to Bamako," he said visibly angry.

He said the complaints by members of the team were unjustified and unfortunate.

When contacted, Vilma Achieng, one of the senior most players in the team said the decision to shoot the video was a top secret and blamed everything on poor communication.

"We were pregnant with expectations when the men national team returned to Kenya and were treated like kings and it is then that some members of the women commission started engaging members of the team individually with a lot of misinformation before we left and even when we were in Darkar. This brought a lot of tension and thus the shooting of the video which she says was done in the captain's room."

Achieng, who has been voted back-to-back MVP at the Fiba Zone Five competitions while turning out for Uganda Christian University where she was a student, blamed the unpleasant situation on confusion brought about by some senior members of the team who were close to the junior members women's basketball commission.

It is as a result of this that Owino wants younger players to be injected in the team to make it more vibrant, a vision that is in tandem with that of the federation.

"It is my prayer that Kenya attends the next two Afrobasket competitions with a youthful team blended with few experienced players mainly from the diaspora with an average age of 23 then slowly they will get their roots and will be unbeaten in Africa," said Owino.

Owino has in mind Christine Akinyi, Caroline Njeri and Daisy Ayodi who performed well at the African Games in Morroco and the youthful 6-foot 6-inch Medina Okot Mullar and Babra Diana, who are currently being groomed by National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock-k)for the Youth Olympics.

Owino also wants Kenya to embrace a coaching philosophy that is universal such that what junior coaches do with the players at the lower level is similar to how the senior players are trained at the national level.

The 56-year-old Owino, arguably the most travelled Kenya international started his basketball career in 1975 while in Standard six at Central Primary School in Kisumu.

"I could carry the playing kits and boots for my uncle Elijah Aduke who was a student at Kisumu Boys High School and could occasionally take to the court to shoot the ball whenever their training was on recess or before they started training," said Owino.

He recalls that it was, however, until 1977, when he joined Cardinal Otunga High School, which had a history of basketball, that he took the game seriously.

He easily made the school junior team while in Form One before breaking into the first team as a Third Former until he finished his secondary education in Form six.

Owino joined the University of Nairobi in 1982 and was immediately drafted into the varsity basketball team, the Terrorists, before earning his first call up to the national team in 1983. He featured for Kenya a record interrupted 12 years.

This article was originally published by Daily Nation. [Photo: Sila Kiplagat/NMG]