Kenya men's national basketball team

Kenya Kenya
FIBA ranking96 Increase 2 (1 March 2024)[1]
Joined FIBA1965
FIBA zoneFIBA Africa
National federationKenya Basketball Association
CoachCliff Owuor
Nickname(s)Morans[2]
FIBA World Cup
Appearances0
AfroBasket
Appearances4
Former logo of the Kenya Basketball Federation

Kenya national basketball team is the national men basketball team in Kenya. It is operated by the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF).

Kenya hosted the 1993 FIBA Africa Championship where the team beat Algeria by an 80-50 blowout and progressed to the semi-final on a point differential, its best performance to date.

History[edit]

Basketball in Kenya was started in Mang'u High School in the 1960s by the Marianist Brothers when Brother Frank Russell took over as Principal. He had previous experience in the USA as a sports master and basketball coach in several schools.

Kenya beat Africa's 11-time champion Angola 74–73 in the AfroBasket 2021 qualification in Yaoundé, Cameroon, hence booking a place at the African tournament for the first time since 1993.[2]

In 2020, Kenya hired Australian Liz Mills as head coach, the first female coach in the Morans' history.[3] She helped the team qualify for AfroBasket 2021, its first tournament in 18 years. Mills became the first female head coach to coach at an AfroBasket tournament.

In 2022, Kenya hired former national team coach Cliff Owuor for the 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.[4] Under Owuor leadership the team went 0-6 in the first round of the qualifiers and failed to progress to the second round.[5] Owuor will continue to lead the team for the 2023 FIBA AfoCan with the team automatically qualifying to the final round due to the team finishing runners up in the 2019 edition.

Kenya also has a u16 boys team and a u18 boys team that are also part of FIBA and the Olympic Committee. Kenyas u18 National Team is led by their team captain from Chicago, Illinois. His name is Iffi Kazmi, a 6’2 Guard that plays for Chi-Prep Sports Academy.

In July 2023 the team will compete in the 2023 AfroCAN tournament. They automatically qualified to the final stage by coming second in the 2019 edition but finished 6th in the final standings. The event was hosted in Angola.[6]

Competitions[edit]

FIBA Basketball World Cup[edit]

Year Round Position GP W L
Argentina 1950 Not a FIBA member
Brazil 1954
Chile 1959
Brazil 1963
Uruguay 1967 Did not qualify
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1970
Puerto Rico 1974
Philippines 1978
Colombia 1982
Spain 1986
Argentina 1990
Canada 1994
Greece 1998
United States 2002
Japan 2006
Turkey 2010
Spain 2014
China 2019
Philippines/Japan/Indonesia 2023
Qatar 2027 To be determined
Total 0/20 9 0 9

AfroBasket[edit]

  Fourth place  

Year Round Position GP W L
Tunisia 1965 Did not qualify
Morocco 1968
Egypt 1970
Senegal 1972
Central African Republic 1974
Egypt 1975
Senegal 1978
Morocco 1980
Somalia 1981
Egypt 1983
Ivory Coast 1985 Classification round 12th 6 0 6
Tunisia 1987 Did not qualify
Angola 1989 Preliminary round 11th 4 0 4
Egypt 1992 Did not qualify
Kenya 1993 Fourth place 4th 5 1 4
Algeria 1995 Did not qualify
Senegal 1997
Angola 1999
Morocco 2001
Egypt 2003
Algeria 2005
Angola 2007
Libya 2009
Madagascar 2011
Ivory Coast 2013
Tunisia 2015
Tunisia Senegal 2017
Rwanda 2021 Round of 16 9th 4 1 3
2025 To be determined
Total Fourth place 4th 19 2 17

African Games[edit]

  • 1987 – 4th

FIBA AfroCan[edit]

  Runners-up  

Year Round Position GP W L
Mali 2019 Runners-up 2nd 5 4 1
Angola 2023 6th place 6th 5 2 3
Total 2/2 2nd 5 2 3

Team[edit]

Current roster[edit]

Roster for the AfroBasket Qualifiers 2025.[7]

Kenya men's national basketball team roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr.
PG 3 Iffi Kazmi 17 – (2006-02-05)5 February 2006 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) Chicago Prep Sports Academy United States
PG 5 Griffin Ligare 36 – (1985-05-19)19 May 1985 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) Nairobi City Thunder Kenya
SG 6 Erick Mutoro 29 – (1992-05-29)29 May 1992 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Ulinzi Warriors Kenya
G 7 Victor Bosire 32 – (1988-12-31)31 December 1988 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) Ulinzi Warriors Kenya
PF 8 Fidel Okoth 24 – (1996-10-24)24 October 1996 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Strathmore University Kenya
SF 9 Tylor Ongwae 30 – (1991-07-15)15 July 1991 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Bakken Bears Denmark
SF 10 Albert Odero 24 – (1997-06-21)21 June 1997 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys United States
SF 11 Valentine Nyakinda 29 – (1992-03-16)16 March 1992 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Kenya Ports Authority Kenya
C 12 Desmond Owili 33 – (1988-02-22)22 February 1988 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Kilsyth Cobras Australia
PF 13 Ronald Gombe 29 – (1992-07-21)21 July 1992 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) CB Villarrobledo Spain
C 14 Tom Wamukota 27 – (1993-09-28)28 September 1993 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) Patriots BBC Rwanda
PF 15 Okall Koranga 31 – (1990-03-18)18 March 1990 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Kampala International University Uganda
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)
  • Kenya Collins Gaya
Legend
  • Club – describes last
    club before the tournament
  • Age – describes age
    on 24 August 2021

Depth chart[edit]

Pos. Starting 5 Bench 1 Bench 2
C Tom Wamukota Desmond Owili
PF Fidel Okoth Okall Koranga Ronald Gombe
SF Albert Odero Valentine Nyakinda
SG Tylor Ongwae Erick Mutoro
PG Victor Bosire Griffin Ligare Situma Khaemba

Head coach position[edit]

  • Kenya Ronnie Owino – 1993, 2001–02, 2007, 2010
  • Kenya Francis Ngunjiri – 2013
  • Cliff Owuor – 2020[8]
  • Australia Liz Mills – 2021[9]

Past rosters[edit]

Team for the 2015 Afrobasket Qualification:[10]

Kenya men's national basketball team roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club
Philip Otieno Ameny
Situma Khaemba
Ariel Okall Okoll Koranga
Kevin Kigotho Macharia
James Maina Mwangi
Ali Salim Mzee
Valentine Onyango Nyakinda
Tobias Onyango Nyindha
Victor Otieno Odendo
James Kithinji
David Amiani
William Ochieng Otieno
Allan Christopher Odongo Ouma
Joseph Ouma
Blacio Owuor Owili
Ancetas Samuel Wafula
Noel Yoni Were Wanambiro
Griffin Ligare Wisyuba
Head coach
  • Kenya Francis Ngunjiri
Legend
  • Club – describes last
    club before the tournament
  • Age – describes age
    on 19 August 2015

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "FIBA Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 1 March 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  2. ^ a b Top coach relishes leading Kenya in AfroBasket Championship Maxwell Wasike (Kenya's Watching), 3 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  3. ^ Ayieko, Odindo. "Just who is Liz Mills, Kenya Morans' first-ever female coach?". The Standard. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  4. ^ "Cliff Owuor returns as Kenya Morans head coach".
  5. ^ "Kenya at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers".
  6. ^ "FIBA AfroCAN 2023".
  7. ^ "Team Roster Kenya". fiba.basketball. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  8. ^ DANN OWERRE (10 September 2020). "Coach Owuor pursues France-based Awich ahead of Afro-basket". The Star. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  9. ^ "Just who is Liz Mills, Kenya Morans' first-ever female coach? : The standard Sports".
  10. ^ "Kenya | 2015 Afrobasket | ARCHIVE.FIBA.COM".

External links[edit]