Sammuel999
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 1, 2016
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KENYAN YOUTHS TAKE SELFIES AT THE ICE RINK IN NAIROBI
KENYAN LOGO ICE HOCKEY
KENYAN team from practice early in the morning
MORE YOUTHS PRACTICE IN NAIROBI PARK
Kenya's first ice hockey team has Olympic
dreams
A small team with giant dreams competes on
the ice for the first time
by Emily Johnson
For a hockey player who’s used to playing on
wheels on the balmy streets of downtown
Nairobi, Kenya, switching to the ice isn’t that
hard—except for one thing.
“Stopping,” Javis Munori says.
“Stopping is different.”
A hockey game takes place every Wednesday
at 9pm as long as more than eight people
confirm they're coming on the league's
Facebook group.
"You know, when you’re on skates and you’re
playing, you get the heat," says Benjamin
Mburu, a recently graduated architect. "You
don’t feel the cold."
Boniface Mukwate uses a hose and this
squeegee to resurface the ice. He's worked at
the Solar Ice Rink since it opened more than
10 years ago.
Michael Munyaro.
Munori, a passionate in-line skater who plays
hockey every Sunday at a park in the central
business district, has just laced up his first
pair of blades and stepped out onto the ice.
He appears steady on his feet as his
teammates Amos Ndung’u, Alex Kabwoya and
Michael Munyaro—who all also got their start
playing roller hockey—give him a quick
demonstration of how to cut, turn and brake.
Ice flies.
“It feels awkward,” Munori says, shifting his
foot to examine the blade. “Like I’m new to it.”
He glances around the rink, where the rest of
the players are warming up. “At least this
place is not as cold as I thought.”
If you didn’t know you were fewer than 90
miles from the equator, it would be hard to
tell from the inside of the Solar Ice Rink. The
scrape of skates and blaring music echo off
mural-covered walls where painted figures of
every skin color skate, ski and toboggan
against an idyllic alpine backdrop. It’s the
only ice rink in East or Central Africa, and it’s
where the Kenyan Ice Hockey League meets for
a game every Wednesday night.
The games are informal, with a mix of local
and international players. There’s no official
uniform, though a handful of the guys wear
custom-made jerseys emblazoned with hockey
sticks crossing the distinctive shield on the
Kenyan flag. By necessity, the equipment is all
imported, and much of it is donated or
improvised. Many players don’t wear helmets.
And even the more experienced ones, who
basically skated out of the womb in Slovakia
or Canada, sometimes have trouble stopping
because the rental skates' blades are so worn.
But every week, at least half the players on the
ice are Kenyan. And more are coming all the
time.
“A lot of people, a lot of Africans, they think
it’s a white man’s sport. But they come to see
it, to have fun, and then they get the interest,”
says Ben Azegere, a skating instructor at the
rink who also happens to be one of the best
players in the league.
“It’s thrilling,” he adds. “Most of the guys,
they come here for the thrill.”
The rink opened in 2005 at Panari Sky Center,
a gleaming hotel and shopping complex on
the outskirts of town near the airport. It was a
risky venture—building costs aside, it’s not
cheap to keep the ice cold in a country where
the only naturally occurring snow exists at the
top of 17,000-foot-high Mount Kenya. But it
wasn’t long before a steady stream of local
schoolchildren and families started stepping
onto the ice for a novel experience.
Benjamin Mburu and Laurent Leonard, a
Canadian player from Montreal, share a light-
hearted moment on the ice.
Teenagers take selfies at the rink while the
team plays behind them.
Amos Ndung’u has been playing ice hockey
for two years and street hockey for five. "The
challenge adds to the appeal," he says.
Amos Ndung'u passes the rink's alpine murals
on his way to the ice.
“I thought it’s just wonderful to see something
like this in Kenya,” says Boniface Mukwate,
who has been maintaining the ice at Solar
since it opened. His old, hand-pushed ice
resurfacer broke about two years ago. A new
one is finally on the way, but in the meantime,
he hoses the ice down and spreads the water
with a squeegee.
With its sharp corners, the rink was not
originally designed with hockey in mind. But
the news of the Solar Ice Rink’s debut caught
the attention of an American architect in
Nairobi. Chicago native Andrew Gremley had
been designing a lab for a team of HIV
researchers from the University of Manitoba in
Winnipeg, and inspiration struck.
“I contacted them and said, 'Can we organize
the world’s first ice hockey game in Kenya?'”
says Gremley, who still lives in Nairobi. The
Canadians seized on the idea with
enthusiasm, packing up their sticks and
collecting donated skates to bring along on
their next trip to Kenya while Gremley
fashioned some makeshift goals. And in
January 2006, the Kenya Ice Hockey League
was born.
“It was Team Winnipeg versus the world,
basically,” Gremley says with a small chuckle,
remembering how the “Winnipeg Jets”
defeated their challengers—an assortment of
UN workers, one Swede, a handful of Canucks
from other provinces and a few curious
Kenyans—with a final score of 4-3.
Amos Ndung'u helps Javis Munori get fitted
with gear before his first-ever attempt at
playing hockey on ice.
League organizer Bruce Strahan custom-
ordered a handful of jerseys, which feature the
shield from the Kenyan flag crossed with
hockey sticks.
Michael Munyaro laces up his skates while his
Russian leaguemate Alexander Zhukov puts on
his goalie pads.
The players get ready in the locker room,
which is draped with the Kenyan flag.
Much of the equipment is donated. "Every time
I'm in the U.S. and I say I play hockey in
Kenya, people want to donate equipment,"
says Marcel Kaba, a frequent player from
Slovakia. "But the problem is shipping it."
Even the most experienced players sometimes
have trouble stopping and maneuvering on the
worn-out rental skates.
Amos Ndung'u helps Javis Munori get fitted
with gear before his first-ever attempt at
playing hockey on ice.
The players leave Panari Sky Centre at the end
of the night.
Aga Khan Walk is a sunken parking lot right in
the center of Nairobi, just a stone’s throw
from the Kenyatta International Convention
Centre building that dominates the city’s
skyline.
It’s a sunny Sunday in late May and the place
is packed as Nairobi’s residents celebrate the
end of the rainy season. Teenagers flirt,
enterprising vendors hawk peanuts, and a
couple of laughing parents skate slowly on
either side of their small, wobbly daughter,
who is still in her best fairy princess Sunday
dress.
In one corner of the park, Joseph Thuo sets
down his stick and cracks a grin, showcasing
half a missing tooth. “This is why I wasn’t at
ice hockey last week,” he says, indicating the
lopsided smile with his customary swagger. “A
stick just went up and, ooh.”
Almost every Sunday afternoon that isn’t
rainy, Joseph and teammates Michael, Amos,
and Javis (last seen going over the difference
between braking on wheels and on blades)
can be found here along with the rest of the
team, playing hockey until the light goes and
they can barely see the ball.
Aga Khan Walk in downtown Nairobi, situated
in the shadow of the Kenyatta International
Convention Centre (KICC) building, transforms
into a skate park every Sunday.
Roller blades can be rented for about 250
Kenyan shillings, or about $2.50.
Videlis "Videl" Omwenga, left, — yet another
hockey player who alternates between the
pavement and the ice—faces off against Javis
Munori.
The guys play without much protective gear.
Sunday hockey can, and often does, go for
hours, allowing the players more of a chance
to develop their skills than the short once-a-
week ice hockey games.
Videl and Javis fight for the ball.
Joseph Ng’ong’o Thuo celebrates after
scoring a goal. He wishes there was more
funding for in-line hockey and dreams of
starting a competitive league across Kenya.
"We’re going to get rich eventually, all of us,
and we’ll sponsor it ourselves," he says with a
grin. "Cause if we come together all of us,
there’s nothing we can’t do."
For years, Kenya Ice Hockey League organizer
Bruce Strachan (an American with a
“Canadian hockey-rich heritage” on his dad's
side) found that recruitment of local ice
hockey players was slow, in large part because
of the cost of entry at the rink. It's about 800
shillings, or $8.00, which on a weekly basis is
prohibitive for many young Kenyans.
But when the first in-line skater crossed over
to try ice hockey a couple of years ago, some
of his teammates expressed interest in
checking it out. Last year, the rink’s Panari
management agreed to sponsor three local
players per league night, and the roller hockey
guys started taking turns hitting the ice.
They’ve taken to it quickly, and the games are
fast-paced and fun to watch. But unless the
ice hockey league gets more funding that
would allow all the players to play at once --
and for longer -- street hockey will likely
remain the priority.
Lack of funding has been the Kenya Ice
Hockey League’s biggest and most constant
obstacle to raising its profile. In July of this
year, the Royal Moroccan Ice Hockey
Federation will host the first African Ice
Hockey Cup in Rabat. Kenya was invited but
couldn’t put together the money to attend.
“We have a bright future,” says Ben Azegere,
the skating instructor, who along with his
fellow teacher Alex Kabwoya often gives
lessons to local school groups. “For us guys,
we started a bit late, but we see a bright
future for the kids. They have the facilities.”
Kabwoya agrees, noting that some of his
students have ambitions of playing at a higher
level. “I have small kids I’m teaching here who
are good, really good,” he says.
Azegere’s wife Dinah, however, doesn’t see
why Kenyan ice hockey should wait around for
the next generation.
An occasional player herself, she stopped in
for skating lessons a couple of years ago — “I
was stressed out at work and I always wanted
to be a figure skater,” she says — and Ben was
her instructor. They married in November.
“We actually fell in love on this rink,” she
says.
Lawyer Rehema Parmena, left, watches the
game closely, prepared to sub back in.
Most Wednesday nights, there are no goalies.
Penguins stand sentry in the nets instead.
Dinah Azegere sits bundled up on the sidelines
with a hot drink. She is hoping to start
bringing spectators in to watch the games.
Ben and Dinah Azegere skate together at the
end of the night after the ice has cleared.
Dinah is currently building a website called
MySkatingLife.com aimed at getting more
Kenyans interested in hockey. In the short
term, her plan is to bring spectators in to
watch the Wednesday night games. The idea
is to arrange buses to transport university
students to the rink, where there will be hot
drinks and snacks for sale, dance groups to
hype up the crowd and a floor manager to
coordinate cheers. Admission will be 200
shillings ($2.00) each, and the proceeds will
go toward sponsoring more players and
importing much-needed new equipment.
“Sometimes I look at the kids’ boots and I
think, 'How will we get to the Olympics?’” she
says, shaking her head.
The Kenya Ice Hockey League circles up to
assign teams before the game.
Which brings us to Dinah’s long-term plans.
She’s done her research. The Solar Ice Rink is
too small to meet international standards, so
Kenya would be ineligible to host any Olympic
qualifying events. She dreams of taking a
group of talented, young Kenyan ice hockey
players to watch the games in South Korea in
2018 to get inspired—giving them four years
to convince the Kenyan government to build
an international-standard rink and put
together a team for Beijing in 2022.
“Plenty of time,” she says with a laugh.
Left to right: Javis Munori (Kenya), Marcel
Kaba (Slovakia), Vladimir Jezek (Slovakia),
Michael Munyaro (Kenya), Benard Azegere
(Kenya), Juraj Korbel (Slovakia), Alex
Kabwoya (Kenya), Amos Ndung'u (Kenya),
Alexander Zhukov (Russia).
nomasana , sam999, NairobiWalker,
@hbuyosh , msemakweli, simplemind,
Kimweri , Bulldog , MK254 , Kafrican,
Ngongo , @ab_Titchaz , Mtanganyika
mpya, JokaKuu , Ngongo, Askari
Kanzu , Dhuks , Yule-Msee ,waltham ,
Mzee, mombasite gabriel,
Juakali1980 , Boda254, mwaswast,
MwendaOmo, @Mwanakijiji
, Iconoclastes, oneflash , Kambalanick,
1 Africa , saadeque , burukenge,
nyangau mkenya , teen-Upperhill
Nairobi, kadoda11 Ian Cruz Dani5
KENYAN LOGO ICE HOCKEY
KENYAN team from practice early in the morning
MORE YOUTHS PRACTICE IN NAIROBI PARK
Kenya's first ice hockey team has Olympic
dreams
A small team with giant dreams competes on
the ice for the first time
by Emily Johnson
For a hockey player who’s used to playing on
wheels on the balmy streets of downtown
Nairobi, Kenya, switching to the ice isn’t that
hard—except for one thing.
“Stopping,” Javis Munori says.
“Stopping is different.”
A hockey game takes place every Wednesday
at 9pm as long as more than eight people
confirm they're coming on the league's
Facebook group.
"You know, when you’re on skates and you’re
playing, you get the heat," says Benjamin
Mburu, a recently graduated architect. "You
don’t feel the cold."
Boniface Mukwate uses a hose and this
squeegee to resurface the ice. He's worked at
the Solar Ice Rink since it opened more than
10 years ago.
Michael Munyaro.
Munori, a passionate in-line skater who plays
hockey every Sunday at a park in the central
business district, has just laced up his first
pair of blades and stepped out onto the ice.
He appears steady on his feet as his
teammates Amos Ndung’u, Alex Kabwoya and
Michael Munyaro—who all also got their start
playing roller hockey—give him a quick
demonstration of how to cut, turn and brake.
Ice flies.
“It feels awkward,” Munori says, shifting his
foot to examine the blade. “Like I’m new to it.”
He glances around the rink, where the rest of
the players are warming up. “At least this
place is not as cold as I thought.”
If you didn’t know you were fewer than 90
miles from the equator, it would be hard to
tell from the inside of the Solar Ice Rink. The
scrape of skates and blaring music echo off
mural-covered walls where painted figures of
every skin color skate, ski and toboggan
against an idyllic alpine backdrop. It’s the
only ice rink in East or Central Africa, and it’s
where the Kenyan Ice Hockey League meets for
a game every Wednesday night.
The games are informal, with a mix of local
and international players. There’s no official
uniform, though a handful of the guys wear
custom-made jerseys emblazoned with hockey
sticks crossing the distinctive shield on the
Kenyan flag. By necessity, the equipment is all
imported, and much of it is donated or
improvised. Many players don’t wear helmets.
And even the more experienced ones, who
basically skated out of the womb in Slovakia
or Canada, sometimes have trouble stopping
because the rental skates' blades are so worn.
But every week, at least half the players on the
ice are Kenyan. And more are coming all the
time.
“A lot of people, a lot of Africans, they think
it’s a white man’s sport. But they come to see
it, to have fun, and then they get the interest,”
says Ben Azegere, a skating instructor at the
rink who also happens to be one of the best
players in the league.
“It’s thrilling,” he adds. “Most of the guys,
they come here for the thrill.”
The rink opened in 2005 at Panari Sky Center,
a gleaming hotel and shopping complex on
the outskirts of town near the airport. It was a
risky venture—building costs aside, it’s not
cheap to keep the ice cold in a country where
the only naturally occurring snow exists at the
top of 17,000-foot-high Mount Kenya. But it
wasn’t long before a steady stream of local
schoolchildren and families started stepping
onto the ice for a novel experience.
Benjamin Mburu and Laurent Leonard, a
Canadian player from Montreal, share a light-
hearted moment on the ice.
Teenagers take selfies at the rink while the
team plays behind them.
Amos Ndung’u has been playing ice hockey
for two years and street hockey for five. "The
challenge adds to the appeal," he says.
Amos Ndung'u passes the rink's alpine murals
on his way to the ice.
“I thought it’s just wonderful to see something
like this in Kenya,” says Boniface Mukwate,
who has been maintaining the ice at Solar
since it opened. His old, hand-pushed ice
resurfacer broke about two years ago. A new
one is finally on the way, but in the meantime,
he hoses the ice down and spreads the water
with a squeegee.
With its sharp corners, the rink was not
originally designed with hockey in mind. But
the news of the Solar Ice Rink’s debut caught
the attention of an American architect in
Nairobi. Chicago native Andrew Gremley had
been designing a lab for a team of HIV
researchers from the University of Manitoba in
Winnipeg, and inspiration struck.
“I contacted them and said, 'Can we organize
the world’s first ice hockey game in Kenya?'”
says Gremley, who still lives in Nairobi. The
Canadians seized on the idea with
enthusiasm, packing up their sticks and
collecting donated skates to bring along on
their next trip to Kenya while Gremley
fashioned some makeshift goals. And in
January 2006, the Kenya Ice Hockey League
was born.
“It was Team Winnipeg versus the world,
basically,” Gremley says with a small chuckle,
remembering how the “Winnipeg Jets”
defeated their challengers—an assortment of
UN workers, one Swede, a handful of Canucks
from other provinces and a few curious
Kenyans—with a final score of 4-3.
Amos Ndung'u helps Javis Munori get fitted
with gear before his first-ever attempt at
playing hockey on ice.
League organizer Bruce Strahan custom-
ordered a handful of jerseys, which feature the
shield from the Kenyan flag crossed with
hockey sticks.
Michael Munyaro laces up his skates while his
Russian leaguemate Alexander Zhukov puts on
his goalie pads.
The players get ready in the locker room,
which is draped with the Kenyan flag.
Much of the equipment is donated. "Every time
I'm in the U.S. and I say I play hockey in
Kenya, people want to donate equipment,"
says Marcel Kaba, a frequent player from
Slovakia. "But the problem is shipping it."
Even the most experienced players sometimes
have trouble stopping and maneuvering on the
worn-out rental skates.
Amos Ndung'u helps Javis Munori get fitted
with gear before his first-ever attempt at
playing hockey on ice.
The players leave Panari Sky Centre at the end
of the night.
Aga Khan Walk is a sunken parking lot right in
the center of Nairobi, just a stone’s throw
from the Kenyatta International Convention
Centre building that dominates the city’s
skyline.
It’s a sunny Sunday in late May and the place
is packed as Nairobi’s residents celebrate the
end of the rainy season. Teenagers flirt,
enterprising vendors hawk peanuts, and a
couple of laughing parents skate slowly on
either side of their small, wobbly daughter,
who is still in her best fairy princess Sunday
dress.
In one corner of the park, Joseph Thuo sets
down his stick and cracks a grin, showcasing
half a missing tooth. “This is why I wasn’t at
ice hockey last week,” he says, indicating the
lopsided smile with his customary swagger. “A
stick just went up and, ooh.”
Almost every Sunday afternoon that isn’t
rainy, Joseph and teammates Michael, Amos,
and Javis (last seen going over the difference
between braking on wheels and on blades)
can be found here along with the rest of the
team, playing hockey until the light goes and
they can barely see the ball.
Aga Khan Walk in downtown Nairobi, situated
in the shadow of the Kenyatta International
Convention Centre (KICC) building, transforms
into a skate park every Sunday.
Roller blades can be rented for about 250
Kenyan shillings, or about $2.50.
Videlis "Videl" Omwenga, left, — yet another
hockey player who alternates between the
pavement and the ice—faces off against Javis
Munori.
The guys play without much protective gear.
Sunday hockey can, and often does, go for
hours, allowing the players more of a chance
to develop their skills than the short once-a-
week ice hockey games.
Videl and Javis fight for the ball.
Joseph Ng’ong’o Thuo celebrates after
scoring a goal. He wishes there was more
funding for in-line hockey and dreams of
starting a competitive league across Kenya.
"We’re going to get rich eventually, all of us,
and we’ll sponsor it ourselves," he says with a
grin. "Cause if we come together all of us,
there’s nothing we can’t do."
For years, Kenya Ice Hockey League organizer
Bruce Strachan (an American with a
“Canadian hockey-rich heritage” on his dad's
side) found that recruitment of local ice
hockey players was slow, in large part because
of the cost of entry at the rink. It's about 800
shillings, or $8.00, which on a weekly basis is
prohibitive for many young Kenyans.
But when the first in-line skater crossed over
to try ice hockey a couple of years ago, some
of his teammates expressed interest in
checking it out. Last year, the rink’s Panari
management agreed to sponsor three local
players per league night, and the roller hockey
guys started taking turns hitting the ice.
They’ve taken to it quickly, and the games are
fast-paced and fun to watch. But unless the
ice hockey league gets more funding that
would allow all the players to play at once --
and for longer -- street hockey will likely
remain the priority.
Lack of funding has been the Kenya Ice
Hockey League’s biggest and most constant
obstacle to raising its profile. In July of this
year, the Royal Moroccan Ice Hockey
Federation will host the first African Ice
Hockey Cup in Rabat. Kenya was invited but
couldn’t put together the money to attend.
“We have a bright future,” says Ben Azegere,
the skating instructor, who along with his
fellow teacher Alex Kabwoya often gives
lessons to local school groups. “For us guys,
we started a bit late, but we see a bright
future for the kids. They have the facilities.”
Kabwoya agrees, noting that some of his
students have ambitions of playing at a higher
level. “I have small kids I’m teaching here who
are good, really good,” he says.
Azegere’s wife Dinah, however, doesn’t see
why Kenyan ice hockey should wait around for
the next generation.
An occasional player herself, she stopped in
for skating lessons a couple of years ago — “I
was stressed out at work and I always wanted
to be a figure skater,” she says — and Ben was
her instructor. They married in November.
“We actually fell in love on this rink,” she
says.
Lawyer Rehema Parmena, left, watches the
game closely, prepared to sub back in.
Most Wednesday nights, there are no goalies.
Penguins stand sentry in the nets instead.
Dinah Azegere sits bundled up on the sidelines
with a hot drink. She is hoping to start
bringing spectators in to watch the games.
Ben and Dinah Azegere skate together at the
end of the night after the ice has cleared.
Dinah is currently building a website called
MySkatingLife.com aimed at getting more
Kenyans interested in hockey. In the short
term, her plan is to bring spectators in to
watch the Wednesday night games. The idea
is to arrange buses to transport university
students to the rink, where there will be hot
drinks and snacks for sale, dance groups to
hype up the crowd and a floor manager to
coordinate cheers. Admission will be 200
shillings ($2.00) each, and the proceeds will
go toward sponsoring more players and
importing much-needed new equipment.
“Sometimes I look at the kids’ boots and I
think, 'How will we get to the Olympics?’” she
says, shaking her head.
The Kenya Ice Hockey League circles up to
assign teams before the game.
Which brings us to Dinah’s long-term plans.
She’s done her research. The Solar Ice Rink is
too small to meet international standards, so
Kenya would be ineligible to host any Olympic
qualifying events. She dreams of taking a
group of talented, young Kenyan ice hockey
players to watch the games in South Korea in
2018 to get inspired—giving them four years
to convince the Kenyan government to build
an international-standard rink and put
together a team for Beijing in 2022.
“Plenty of time,” she says with a laugh.
Left to right: Javis Munori (Kenya), Marcel
Kaba (Slovakia), Vladimir Jezek (Slovakia),
Michael Munyaro (Kenya), Benard Azegere
(Kenya), Juraj Korbel (Slovakia), Alex
Kabwoya (Kenya), Amos Ndung'u (Kenya),
Alexander Zhukov (Russia).
nomasana , sam999, NairobiWalker,
@hbuyosh , msemakweli, simplemind,
Kimweri , Bulldog , MK254 , Kafrican,
Ngongo , @ab_Titchaz , Mtanganyika
mpya, JokaKuu , Ngongo, Askari
Kanzu , Dhuks , Yule-Msee ,waltham ,
Mzee, mombasite gabriel,
Juakali1980 , Boda254, mwaswast,
MwendaOmo, @Mwanakijiji
, Iconoclastes, oneflash , Kambalanick,
1 Africa , saadeque , burukenge,
nyangau mkenya , teen-Upperhill
Nairobi, kadoda11 Ian Cruz Dani5
