Ali Salim Manga: Legend of Kenyan football commentary

Back in the day, Ali Salim Manga rivalled the regional influence of Leonard Mambo Mbotela and Salim Mbonde of Radio Tanzania. His football commentary was well-researched and when coupled with his fluency and eloquence in Kiswahili, he was a darling of thousands of football radio listeners in East and Central Africa.

His articulation in the description of players and the general atmosphere in tensioned-packed matches earned him a huge following.

And although he has already retired, veteran broadcaster Ali Salim Manga is still a respected and renowned football commentator. He worked for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) for over four decades as a Chief Continuity Announcer before his retirement in 2005.

Manga covered many local and international matches from the then Kenya National Football League in the late seventies to 2005 (now Kenyan Premier League) matches.

He was also featured in international assignments involving different league champions and the national team, Harambee Stars for the entire period of his working career.

He went around the continent with the likes of Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards and Tusker when they featured in the Confederation of East and Central Africa (CECAFA) East and Central Africa Club Championships, Africa Club Championships (now Africa Champions League) and Africa Cup Winners Cup (formerly Nelson Mandela Cup and now Confederation Cup).

And with Harambee Stars, Manga covered them in the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, All Africa Games, and World Cup Qualification matches.

Of all his tours, the most memorable one for the veteran football commentator was the 2006 World Cup in Germany when Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title after overcoming France 5-3 on penalties, after a 1-1 extra-time draw.

Germany defeated Portugal 3-1 to finish in third place.

“It was a memorable experience at a time we travelled with my colleague Jack Oyoo Silvester. It gave us the international exposure any experienced journalist would long for,” said Manga who was not keen to divulge his age.

Another assignment that made him proud was the All Africa Games in Nairobi in 1987 when Kenya lost 1-0 to Egypt.

“We were four commentators on the same assignment from the first to the final match, which allowed all of us to exploit our talents,” Manga said.

The other commentators were Eric Munene, the late Salim Mohammed and James Abila.

“Here, everyone was given at least five minutes to work on his piece in every match as we passed the microphone to each other. It was equally a memorable experience,” he said.

He says the 1982 East and Central Africa Senior Challenge Cup when Kenya reached the finals against Uganda under coach Marshal Mulwa was also epic to him. Kenya won on post-match penalties.

Manga was an all-rounder in studio matters as he was also involved in several programmes besides being a continuity announcer before he was promoted to Chief Announcer.

One of the programmes he used to work on was Ulimwengu Wa Muziki, which he inherited from the late Eddy Fondo who conducted it as Wajue Wanamuziki.

Manga says the late Salim Mohammed and Abila gave him a run for his money on the job. At the time, KBC had only four football commentators in Abila, Salim Mohammed, Leonard Mambo Mbotela and Eric Munene.

“These commentators were inspiring and their work was full of ethics, research and professionalism,” he said.

On the regional front, Manga recognises Ahmed Kipoozi, Ahmed Kongo, Salim Mbonde and Tido Muhando, all of who worked for Radio Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam, as some of the most experienced commentators in the region.

On the kind of football reportage today, Manga said most current commentators don’t work on football research, a development he said listeners are keen on.

“Research enriches our work and it makes us get the nitty-gritty of match details leading to respect among fans. There’s a need for reporters to go to the pitch to get acquainted with players, coaches and referees as opposed to armchair journalism,” he said.

“At our time, we arrived early in stadiums to seek different details that included line-ups from coaches and match commissioners ahead of the match,” he said.

Some of the Kenya legends Manga respects are goalkeeper Mohamoud ‘Kenya One’ Abbas, Bobby ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ Ogolla, Wilberforce ‘Maradona’ Mulamba and Josephat ‘Controller’ Murila.

The retired commentator has mentored the likes of the late Billy Omalla when he was a District Radio Producer in Wundanyi and Michael Were.

Omalla, who first worked for KBC in Mombasa was first an artiste. Were went on to work for K24 TV after a stint with KBC.

He also trained timekeepers to act as reporters when on different assignments abroad.

“At times, we used to work for long hours abroad and we needed some relief, which we got from such staff (time-keepers),” Manga added.

Manga said radio still has a big role in shaping the destiny of football as opposed to social media.

Manga was honoured among Kenya's Heroes alongside Leonard Mambo Mbotela and Sammy Luwi by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Before joining the parastatal, Manga had attended the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication in Nairobi.

He joined the then Voice of Kenya (now KBC) in 1977 as a broadcaster before the experienced (James) Abila introduced him to football commentary. They (Manga and Abila) were schoolmates at Allidina Visram High School in Mombasa before they found themselves working for the same organisation years later.