The legendary Lichungus, family of great footballers

Kenneth Mukaisi, left, and former AFC Player Peter Lichungu during the Club's AGM held at Ufungamano House. (Photo/Johan Onyango)

Peter Musisi is a former Bata Bullets FC, AFC Leopards’ and national team midfielder in the early 1990s whose memory in the football game has faded over time. The 1990s were not good for football in Kenya, the economic downturn led to state corporations to withdraw their teams from national leagues and even fold them up altogether. 

He played the Coca Cola U17 tournament that began in the late 1980s and featured junior teams of secondary schools. He was at Kakamega High School until 1990. From school he joined Limuru side Bata Bullets where he was a midfield kingpin.

Bata Bullets regained promotion to the top league in 1992 the same year Musisi made his debut against Re-Union FC. They later lost to Kenya Breweries in 1992 Moi Golden Cup. He joined AFC Leopards’ in 1993 the same year Bata Bullets was disbanded.

When he joined Ingwe he did not morph into the top midfielder he was in Limuru. There was Tom Juma, John Odie and Peter Owade, Joseph Adach, Richard Madegwa among other stalwarts. He did his best and got to caps with the national team after ne call up. It was also the season when there was succession in the national team as the old generation of Abbas Magongo and Keffa Tassos were fading out.

Musisi later left the country for the USA where he resides to date. Musisi is the younger brother of Peter Lichungu, an AFC Leopards’ defense kingpin who got call ups to the national team but opted out.

His employer Kenya Re-Insurance asked him to choose between the national team and his job. He chose his job where he worked in the purchasing and supplies department. He still played for his employer in the insurance companies league while playing for AFC Leopards.

Peter Lichungu today does not look like the sixty-three years old grandfather that he is. This is a player who played for AFC Leopards in the 1980s to early 1990s when the talent at the club was top notch. For his name to pop up often as a legend is proof of his class on the pitch.

The son of a psychiatrist, Lichungu loved Gor Mahia as a child but this changed in Form One at Upper Hill School. He watched Ingwe players campaign and rediscovered his love the Luhya based club. However, he later succumbed to family pressure to join Leopards’. Job Omino the Gor Mahia chairman had made contact with him after he sat his A-Levels in 1982. His father Nathan Lichungu was in the Leopards’ medical team but did not want his son to play football. He transferred him from Upper Hill High School where Leopards’ used to train. To avoid his son getting distracted from his studies, he transferred him to Kakamega High School. A case of plucking a fish from a pond and throwing it into the lake.

His elder son Samuel was playing also into football and later played for Blue Triangle in Athi River but did not break into the top tier league. He looked keenly at how Peter Lichungu had pinned up a newspaper cutting of legendary goalkeeper Mahmoud Abbas on his bedroom wall.

They lived at Mathari Hospital on Thika Road and that is how a 16-year-old Peter landed in the hands of Chris Makokha at Kakamega. Makokha was also handling the Olympic Youth Centres and Lichungu did his best to hide his football involvement from his father. The good thing is he was now out of his sight. However, he visited Germany with Olympic Youth anxiously because he knew his father would get to know.

Born in 1961 in Kakamega. He joined AFC Leopards in 1982 from both Kakamega High School and Motcom FC of Kakamega. He captained the 1982 Green Commandos that won their fourth consecutive title in Machakos against Chewoyet. He signed in the reign of Dr. Masiga as Ingwe chairman, who signed Peter Ouma and Mike Amwai with Lichungu. His sign on fee was Sh60,000 which went to his parents.

‘The rat’

He was a ball playing centre back who signed for Ingwe when Aggrey “Shama Shama” Mirikau and Abdul Baraza were the preferred defenders in his position. However, he also played right back when there was need. This was the easiest way to get play time in a season when Kenya produced top talent. He got the nickname the “the rat” which is known in Luhya as “lichungu” but he was also a menace to opponents.

His utility in AFC Leopards’ was evident when they played Mfulira Wanderers FC of Zambia in 1985 CAF Cup Winners Cup second round. Lichungu “gnawed” the ball from Kalusha Bwalya’s legs with ease and some tough technic.

He remains his top ranked opponent who outplayed Mickey Weche in Kitwe and the T9 got injured. Weche could not play in the return leg in Nairobi and Lichungu covered up in the right back position and stopped Bwalya. His father Nathan Lichungu died in 1984 when Peter was playing CECAFA in Mombasa with Leopards.  

He learned of his death just when they were playing the semi-finals before meeting Gor Mahia in the final. Ingwe beat Gor at the incomplete Nyayo Stadium which he dedicated to his father despite leaving the squad before the match. He helped Ingwe through their most successful era.