The Life and Times of William "Chege" Ouma

The following is an article on the life of one of the league's and national team's lethal strikers, the legendary William Ouma, nicknamed Chege, that appeared in the Standard in 1989. We have abbreviated the article slightly by there is a snap shot of the article attached. At the end we have provided some of his goal scoring statistics that are not part of the article

The Life and Times of William "Chege" Ouma
Chege Kariuki, Staff Writer
The Standard, Saturday, June 3, 1989

William 'Chege' Ouma remains one of the best striker Kenya has ever had. He played for Harambee Stars, the national soccer team, for 12 years but has lost count of the number of goals he scored for the national team in his career.

All that "Chege" Ouma remembers today is that he appeared as a right flanker in the team for three years before winning the number nine jersey.

Ouma retired as an active player nine years ago. That is when he hang the boots after helping Gor Mahia to win their first East and Central Africa club title in Blantyre, Malawi, in 1980. At 44 today he is a father of five daughters and three sons and works as assistant sectional maintenance engineer at the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation.

He physically looks strong althought budding grey hair on his side head announces that he is not young anymore.

But it is sad that Ouma has stopped attending matches in the local stadia. He has not been to any local stadium in the last three years. "A gatekeeper during a continental match at the Nyayo National Stadium shouted and told me even if you are "Chege" Ouma you will not get into the stadium without a ticket," he complained to Sports Special in an interview.

"That hurt me, I just returned home and I have never been there again. That was the second time. It first happened at the City Stadium when an Indian friend angrily bought a ticket for me after a gatekeeper had shut me out."

"I now watch the television and listen to the radio for football news", Ouma told me.

Looking bitter, Ouma told me that the disbanded Kenya Football Federation had hinged about organizing stadium passes for retired internationals but that was just said but never done.

"It is appalling that sportsmen here only matter when on form. They are never remembered when their days in sports are gone."

"I have only a medal to show although I played for the national team for 12 years without a break. I won the medal in 1976 when I was voted the Footballer of the Year '75. I do not have the medal in the city, it is up-country in Bunyala.

"I am currently organizing a tournament involving small clubs in the name of my brother Paul Odhiambo who passed away in 1987. The final will be on August 13, the date of his death."

Paul was a former national long jump record holder and an athletics official who died on [the day the 4th All Africa] Games in Nairobi came to an end.

"Despite his achievement, officials of the Kenya Amateur Athletics Association do not remember him. Not even a meeting is organized in his memory.

The late Odhiambo is father to the national sprints queen Joyce Odhiambo. Chege's only sister, Alice, was a leading short distance runner until after marriage.

People praise "Chege" to date as the best Kenya has ever had and that it will be hard to get an equal number nine....

Ouma played for Gor Mahia until 1974 when there was a split to form Luo Union. He played for the latter, now Re-Union. He rejoined Gor Mahia in 1978 and played his last international match in Lilongwe in 1980 where Gor Mahia played their preliminary matches.

The Split in Gor Mahia, formed in 1968, was a big saga but Ouma told me that most leading players with the club detected favouritism by the officials on young players. Ouma and nine other leading players quit to form Luo Union

Our addition:
Based on the ongoing statistics we are compiling on the league since its inception in 1963, William Ouma "Chege" has scored about 126 goals in the league, second behind only Wilberforce Mulamba (143) and John Baraza (128). We still do not have results from 1963 and only partial results from the 1964, 1965 and 1966 seasons. Our first recorded league goal by "Chege" is on 21st November 1964 when Luo Union beat Mombasa's Liverpool FC (later Mwenge FC) 7-2. It is the only record we have so far of his goal that season, a year in which he scored twice when he made his debut for the national team at the age of 19. It is therefore most likely that he is the second best all time scorer in the league behind Wilberforce Mulamba.

Goals by Clubs (League goals only and excludes the Nairobi Provincial league matches)

Luo Union (includes Luo Stars (1978) - 86 goals
Gor Mahia - 29 goals
Kisumu Hotstars - 11 goals

Goals by years
1964 - 1
1965 - 6
1966 - 15
1967 - 11
1968 - 19
1970 - 7
1971 - 1 (league ends prematurely)
1972 - 1
1974 - 18
1975 - 21
1976 - 15
1977 - 3
1978 - 6
1979 - 1

Other notable feats
Scored 4 league hattricks - only Wilberforce Mulamba and Charles Odero (both 5) have more
Scored 4 goals in a league game on 4 different occasions, we have not recorded anyone yet with that feat
Scored 5 league goals in a single game at least once (we only have Aloice Otieno (Prisons), Dan Musuku (MoW) and Anthony Ochieng (KTM) as the only other players to have scored 5 while Livingstone Madegwa netted 6 for Abaluhya.