This small group of passionate female football fans lit up the stadia with their beauty. Their presence on the pitch – on the stands – breathed life into our football. These are the KPL Divas.
Some are known by their official names, while others have aliases that, if patented and well marketed, can easily earn them revenue running into thousands of shillings.
From Afande Cele, police officer cum football lover, to a lawyer Toto Dolly – KPL Divas come in different shapes, forms and titles. But just like the rest of us, Covid-19 has done more harm to these women who would go an extra length to lend support to their favourite teams.
These are the stories of these passionate female fans who have been reduced to mere spectator ions, in an era so ravaged by the virus.
Zuleha Kadusa – Wazito
Zuleha has suffered a lot of heartbreak in life. But no emotional pain brings her down like when her favourite team loses a match. When Wazito was relegated in 2016, she suffered one major heartbreak. She had just started supporting the team.
By then, Wazito was broke. Then came 2018. Zuleha, a proud Luhya lady to the core suffered another heartbreak when Wazito was once again sent to the National super League.
The only good thing for the beauty was that the club had acquired new ownership when Swedish businessman Ricardo Badoer bought the club that had lost some of its stop players like Piston Mutamba to Sofapaka. Mutamba and the likes had left the club after they went for months without pay.
But two years later, when Wazito had positioned itself to challenge for a maiden league title, another tragedy struck the already weak heart of Zuleha when President Uhuru Kenyatta suspended all football activities.
“We have nothing to do. We’ve watched all the movies on Netflix and we are left with nothing else to do,” says Zuleha who admitted that she really misses watching her favourite team.
“We didn’t just go out to watch the match, but going to the stadium gave us the chance to socaialise and meet new people.
“Right now the stress level has gone up because some of us have lost jobs, but attending games was the best way to shake off the stress because we could go out there and have fun, make noise.”
Janet Juma-Gor Mahia
Janet Juma is a diehard Gor Mahia fan. For a fan who hails from Ahero in Kisumu County, Juma is not afraid to attach her ethnic identity to her love for the record Kenyan champions.
“I support Gor, first because I love football, then secondly, I’m a Luo,” she unapologetically says with a big smile thereafter.
But to her, the suspension of the sports was a curse and a blessing at the same time. While she admits that she misses the fun that comes with following your favourite team, Juma, however, says that the suspension of sports has saved her thousands of shillings.
“The weekends have been boring definitely, but if you look at it from another angle, at least it has saved me a lot of money because I used to spend a lot on transport to the match venue every weekend.
“But I still miss my friends whom we used to mingle with, in the stadium,” said Juma who started supporting Mayienga in 2006.
Toto Dolly-Shaban FC
Toto Dolly is stunningly beautiful and brainy. She is loyal and passionate about Shabana. She loves football.
The beauty from the land of Abagusi is currently chewing books at the Kenya Law School. But away from the thick walls of the lecture hall, where she is furthering her dream of becoming a family lawyer, Toto Dolly is the poster girl of Shabana FC, the Kisii based Kenyan football club.
Afande Cele-Bandari
If Bandari had two fans, one of them would most definitely be Afande Cele. If Praxides Jumba is not arresting bad guys, the well-toned Luhya lass and a member of the National Police Service is busy throwing support behind Bandari.
Afande Cele and football are like Siamese twins. It is a story that dates back to her days at Magale Primary School in Shinyalu where she used to kick the ball with boys.
From there, she proceeded to St Philip’s Girls’ Secondary School – Mukomari and continued the relationship. But the two would divorce when she joined the police force, about 15 years ago, due to the demanding nature of her work.
But deep inside her heart, one thing survived-Cele’s love for football. She then transferred the affection of kicking the ball to supporting the game. Since then, Cele has been known as one of the biggest Bandari’s die-hard supporters.
Sandy – AFC Leopards
Sandy, who has a strong bias for both AFC Leopards and Wazito, the weekends are never the same:
Weekends are boring. President Uhuru should just lift the ban so that we can go back to the stadium,” said Sandy who now spends most of her time on watching European football.
Sandy’s last trip to the stadium was during a KPL match between Kakamega Homeboyz and AFC Leopards away in Kakamega County.