Kipaji drown AV Fitness to be crowned Bangbet champions in Kibra

Former Kenya internationals Osborne Monday and David ‘Cheche’ Ochieng were the star figures during the ‘Bangbet Champe wa Mtaa’ tournament finals which were staged at the Woodley Grounds in Kibra.

Both Monday and Ochieng were brilliant for AV Fitness against Kipaji Soccer Academy before a capacity crowd of more than 3,000 spectators at the dusty grounds, but the experienced duo could not help their side against a Kipaji side who were clearly the crowds’ favorite.

Monday provided a sumptuous assist for Edwin Otieno’s opener for Fitness, but Timothy Noor cancelled the goal for a 1-1 stalemate at the break.

Kipaji were a different side after the breather, taking the lead early in the second half and extending it further at the death to win 3-2 and pocket the Sh200,000 prize money and a trophy.

Fitness settled for silver and a cash bounty of Sh100,000 set aside for the runners up.

Earlier in the women’s final, Sunderland Samba edged Kibera Girls to be crowned the champions of the inaugural edition, pocketing the lion’s share of the Sh80,000 cash prize for the women’s category.

“This is the first of the many initiatives we have lined up as a company to support the development of football in the country because we have a responsibility to support the community that we operate with,” said Bangbet’s Marketing Director Kevin Maundu.

“We started this here in Nairobi and we hope to do the same across the country in the coming weeks. Of course, the Covid-19 situation has made things quite challenging, but this is the new normal and we have to find ways of doing what we have to do to nurture talent.”

Maundu continued: “We also gave them training and playing kits as well as footballs, each of the team’s getting three for their training now and into the future. We hope this helps them and we intend to do more going forward.”

“In due course, we will launch a campaign to advance this course of sports development using football because of its popularity as a sport but we will also explore what we can do for other sports disciplines.”

The Champe wa Mtaa tournament brought together eight men’s teams and four women’s clubs from Kibra and the larger Dagoretti area of Kawangware and Riruta Satellite.

Kibra United, Soka Talent, Gogo FC, Bundez, and LX LG as well as Undugu FC took part in the men’s contest while Kibera Girls and Sunderland Samba also featured in the women’s category.