Football!

Soccer is the most popular sport in Kenya (it's called football here).  Kenyans religiously follow the English Premier League and the Spanish Premier League.  The fans are so intense that sometimes they commit suicide over losses in major games.  3 weeks ago, when Chelsea lost to Manchester United (my favorite team, by the way) in the Champions League quarterfinal, a Chelsea fan killed himself because he could not take the loss.  2 years ago, it was even worse.  When Arsenal lost in the Champions League semi-finals to Manchester United, 2 fans in Nairobi committed suicide.  According to my host dad, they both left suicide notes blaming their suicide on Arsenal's loss.  

Yesterday, I went to a Kenyan Premier League soccer match in Mombasa between Gor Mahia and Congo United.  I have been to several matches, but this match was by far the most exciting because Gor has a massive following including my host family.

I blend in well.  I was the only white person in the entire stadium (seriously).  

Riot police in full gear.  The guy closest to the crowd had an AK-47.  Fans constantly harassed these guys as they walked around the stadium because most people here hate the police because of their corruption.  When I took this photo, a guy in my section yelled, "We have more than 3 rocks so if we start to riot, you better run!" 

Gor Mahia fans.  In shock after Congo United scored another goal to go up 2-1.  Even though Gor was a visiting team from Nairobi, they had about 4 times as many fans as Congo.

Some of the action.  All of the players on Gor Mahia (in white) were from the Luo tribe.  I was very surprised to learn that the tribalism in Kenya even effected sports teams.  Luos are from the western part of Kenya near Lake Victoria.  Obama's father was a Luo so when I told the fans I am from the USA, they loved me (I had several ladies take photos with me and a news camera crew even took a video of me doing the Gor Mahia team chants).  My host family is also all Luo.

Tribalism has created a great amount of corruption and segregation in this country.  Tribalism was created by English colonial rule.  The English separated the tribes, isolated them, and purposely created tension between them so they could not unite together to overthrow the English rule (there is tribal hostility in most African nations).  As a result, most Kenyans favor their tribe over their country even today.  I think in the U.S., it is difficult to grasp the tribal segregation, but after being here a while I can see how terrible things such as the Rwandan genocides in 1994 can occur.  Even here in 2007, after the presidential elections, something very similar to a genocide occurred.  After the current president rigged the elections (this is not fully confirmed, but it's pretty certain), members of the losing presidential candidate's tribe (Luo) went out and killed several thousand members of the "elected" presidents tribe (Kikuyu) in retaliation for rigging the election.  In retaliation of this, the president sent several groups of Kikuyu to kill Luos in a blood bath that resulted in over 3,000 deaths.  There is an election coming up next year and many people are preparing for some more violence.

Many times when a member of a certain tribe has attained a high amount of governmental power, they only favor their tribe.  For example, the current president only appoints people from the Kikuyu and its neighboring tribes to his office.  The president also makes sure proper funding goes to his tribal communities to support education, build roads, build nice hospitals, etc... while funding to communities of other tribes is completely lacking (the term used to describe this is called "eating"; because a Kikuyu is president, it is the Kikuyus turn to "eat out of the trough [government funds]" and other tribes must wait until their tribe member is a leader to "eat out of the trough").  As a result, his tribe has prospered very well since he has been president at the expense of other tribes.

The best part of the match.  After the game, the fans all climbed over the fence to go yell at the coaches and players.  The match ended in a 2-2 draw and that really upset the Gor fans because Congo United is in last place in the league.  The coach tried to run to the team bus, but the fans ran after him and when they caught him, they yelled and called him an idiot for about half an hour.  Kenyans are very opinionated people so they all let the coaches and the players have a piece of their minds.  Drunk Kenyans are even more opinionated so this scene was pretty intense.  

UPDATE:  Apparently, Gor Mahia fans are known hooligans.  The coach and the team were very lucky not to get beat up after this loss.  Last Friday, the Gor Mahia vs. Ulinzi Stars did not finish because the Gor Mahia fans stormed the field and started rioting.  Cars in the stadium parking lots had their windows smashed in and the stadium's fence and field was completely damaged by rioting fans after a couple of bad calls by the refs.  I was watching numerous news reports showing Gor Mahia fans assaulting refs, coaches, and players after bad games over the past couple of years.  Gor Mahia has even incurred a record 250,000 Ksh (about $2,500) fine for the action of their fans 2 years ago when they stormed the field and beat the crap out of the refs, blaming them for a bad Gor Mahia loss.