“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning”
Pele
It was 2009, I was a few months from a trial with Newcastle United in the UK. And in a hospital bed in Kenya, the victim of electrocution, fearing for my life.
From an early age my passion was playing football and I was talented enough to attract the attentions of various Kenyan premier league clubs. I had signed a contract with one of these clubs in my early teens and looked forward to an enjoyable career.
I was to play in a tournament in Tanzania with a Kenyan under-16 team. While waiting in a hotel before going on this trip I was approached by drug barons who wanted to use me as a drug mule to ferry drugs across the border to Tanzania. I couldn’t say no because I knew they could deal with me there, or I could expect an assault or be killed. When they left, I told my manager and he said these things happen a lot. I did the right thing to agree. Lucky enough we left the hotel to go on our trip before the drug barons returned. But I didn’t know that my manager had informed the police and they arrested the drug barons when they returned to the hotel. So, they believed that it as me who informed on them. At this time, I believed everything was ok. When we returned from Tanzania, I started to play for a Kenyan premier league team.
One day when I returned to my apartment and opened the door, I was taken off my feet and fell to the floor. I had been electrocuted. At the time I didn’t know what had happened because I was unconscious. I was lucky that one of my neighbours noticed my apartment door was open and found me lying on the floor. Parts of skin on my face, neck and left arm had been burnt off leaving pink pigment. My neighbour called other neighbours and they found live electrical wires from a socket attached to the door handle. So, whoever had done this wanted to kill me. I only found out about all of this after I regained full consciousness a few weeks later while in hospital.
During these months I managed to get my strength back and felt physically good enough to play football and I did make the trial at Newcastle. But the burns on my body still shocked people. When I got to Newcastle the coaches were horrified at how I looked. Even though I had the trial, and they liked my playing ability they wanted to know what had happened to me. After I told them my story, they advised me to claim for asylum in the UK. To be honest I was very scared about going back to Kenya because I thought the drug barons would try to kill me again so I agreed to apply. I think anybody in my situation would have done the same.
My asylum interview was going to be in London, so I travelled there and stayed in a hotel to wait for it. In the meantime, I would get up early every morning and go running to stay fit. I also wanted to find some football pitches and hoped to join in with some games.
“My asylum interview was to be on the day of the Tottenham trial, but instead I was sent to a detention centre”
I managed to join in with a team who were training and even made a connection with a scout from Tottenham who offered to get me a trial at their academy. My asylum interview was arranged to be on the same day as the trial and I thought I would be able to go to it after the interview. But instead, I was sent to a detention centre. I have to say that although it is not good being detained in a lot of ways this was a positive experience for me. I met many good people, made friends, and learnt a lot as well as being able to play football.
The next stage of my asylum application was to have a medical to check if the burns on my body were consistent with an electrocution. The medical was going to take at least a year, so I left the detention centre and travelled to Liverpool and started a new part of my life. During this time while I waited for my appointment I was helped by lots of lovely people. You cannot work or go to college in this situation, so I was lucky enough to be helped by Christian groups, who are very kind to asylum seekers, and I played for football teams in Wavertree and Mossley Hill. Through playing football I got to know people from the Everton In The Community project and I did various courses with them, coaching, first aid, mental health awareness, many others, which really helped me. While waiting for your asylum decision I believe it is very important to stay as busy as possible otherwise your mentality can be badly affected.
“Not being able to play football while my appeals were in process was very hard.”
The asylum process is very long and difficult. I was rejected several times, and this really tests your resolve. Fortunately, my solicitor and barrister believed my story and always appealed against the rejections. A big low point for me was when I suffered an ACL knee injury. Not being able to play football while my appeals were in process was very hard. I was fortunate that Everton In The Community was there for me and encouraged me to take coaching and refereeing courses. At first, I was unsure about refereeing. As a player I knew how difficult it was for referees, with players and spectators shouting and swearing at them. But I really enjoyed the courses and once my knee was better I started refereeing under-10 matches through the Liverpool County FA. That was my start and I have progressed over the years, learning the laws of the game and refereeing different ages and levels.
When I finally won my appeal and was granted UK residency, that was the best moment of my life. It had taken 5 years. I felt so thankful to all the lovely and great people who had helped me. At the time, I was progressing a lot with refereeing, and I began to know that my future would be this and not playing, so everything fell into place really. Life has knocked me down a few times. It’s shown me things I didn’t want to see. I’ve experienced sadness and failures, but one thing is for sure, I never give up. I always stay positive and believe that tomorrow will be better. Above all, I’m grateful to God for what I have.