PuraVida Sports

By ELIAS MAKORI in Dubai

Gloves off, towel on shoulder and sweat trickling down his face, Silas Onyango holds back tears outside the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, venue for the IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships, as he recounts a troubled past.

And he’s not out of the woods yet, having to hustle on a hired boda boda to make ends meet, sometimes, on customer-less days, heading back home penniless to his family of four.

On a typical day, the 28-year-old “Hit Squad” boxer gets up at 4am, pushes his boda boda rounds until 6.30am when he gets some rest before heading to the gym for boxing practice.

But sometimes he has to work longer hours to make ends meet.

In the boxing ring set up at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, Onyango was on Friday night outpointed by Sri Lanka’s Danil Hasika Tissaaratchy in a minimumweight (46-48 kilogrammes) Round of 32 to exit his first global contest with a huge sense of pride.

For him, merely making it to these championships is massive, considering his troubled past and poor family background.

“Coach (John) Waweru has been encouraging us that we can be national champions…,” Onyango tells me as he heads to the locker rooms.

“Just like the (Harambee Stars) footballers are supported by the government, we appeal for the government to also consider something for us boxers at least so that each end of the month, we can appreciate the fact that we are “Team Kenya” and the country depends on us,” he implores the State, happy to have made the trip to Dubai where government-funded per diems will push him and his young family quite a bit.

“The allowances that I’ve eked out of this tournament will help me take care of my family as there is nothing coming through at the end of the month and I need to pay for house rent, etc,” he explains.

“Sometimes the landlord locks the house whenever rent is late… he sees me carrying the gym bag each day and tells me ‘I can’t eat that bag of yours. I need my money because this is my business and I depend on income from rent.’ It’s tough!”

His parents Alphonse and Jane Onyango didn’t approve their son taking up boxing, but he’s proud to have proved them wrong.

“Eventually, God has brought me this far… I knew I was coming here (Dubai) for a gold, but, nonetheless, being my first global championship, I know one day that gold will be mine.”

Onyango won gold in the light flyweight category at the Africa Zone III Championships at Kasarani in September where he outwitted DR Congo’s Mayala Tsimba in the final to cement his place in the “Hit Squad” for these global championships.

“I tucked that gold medal inside my Bible and I knew I was coming to Dubai to pick up another one,” says the Dandora-based father of four whose daily boda boda hustle yields him, at the highest, Sh1,000 per day, Sh400 of which he has to surrender to the motorcycle owner.

“I remain with Sh600… but at times I even fail to get the Sh400 to give the owner of the bike. He would sometimes take away the bike saying I’m not serious yet I’ve been in the hot sun the whole day without getting any customers.

“In this world we are being tested by God who wants to know what we really desire. There’s a time I even gave up on the boda boda hustle and gave back the bike to the owner,” recounts Onyango who is full of praise for his wife Pamela for standing by him.

“My wife has been supportive, feeding me at times because I’m jobless and I always tell her siku moja itajipa (one day we shall have a breakthrough).

“At times when we compete in the league, we get like Sh10,000 a month which I use for the rent as my wife works to get us the food. She has really supported me and fed me,” he says of Pamela who works in a hotel on a Sh300-a-day pay.

“She goes hustling in her hotel job as I train and when I get back, I stay with the kids. But when I go for training, we leave the kids at a daycare centre, paying Sh100 for their day’s care.”

As his boxing star continues to rise, Onyango hopes he can purchase his own motorcycle and earn better from the boda boda business.

“If only the government could get me my own bike, I will really appreciate as it will help me even with my training. 

“Sometimes I have to jog all the way from Dandora to the Mathare Police Depot in Muthaiga (a 10-kilometre distance) for training. When I get there and there is some road work (jogging) on the programme, I join the rest and after the day’s session, I then still jog back home because I simply can’t afford the fare.

“But God has answered my prayers because I have come from far… I had taken a motorbike on loan but I couldn’t service the loan and they repossessed it and that’s why I have to use a hired one and pay the owner daily.

Onyango operates his boda boda business around Korogocho where he was brought up and where his customers mainly reside at, with his parents currently living in the “Darfur” area at the sprawling “Bangladesh” slums.

He’s happy to have proved his parents wrong by making boxing count.

“Vile tulicheza Africa nilipata kakitu nikawanunulia mbulu. Nilikuwa nasema vile hawana mbulu, nitawanunulia ndio wanione nikicheza kwa hiyo mbulu (When we competed at the Africa Championships (in DR Congo), I saved up something and bought them a TV set. I had told myself that since they didn’t have a TV, I needed to buy them one so that they can watch me boxing.”)

He takes a deep pause, fights back emotions as he reflects on his troubled past: “Nimeteseka. Hadi mtaani nimeokota okota chakula…yaani ile life ngumu. Leo vile nimefika hapa nashukuru God manze. Walikuwa hadi wananifunga kwa kiti na kunichapa wakisema hii kitu (boxing) itafanya nichizi, but nashukuru God amewaprove wrong. (I have suffered. In the hood I used to scavange for food… it was a tough life. Now that I have come all the way here, I thank God. My parents used to tie me up on a chair and beat me up, discouraging me that boxing will make me mad, but I’m grateful God has proved them wrong).

“Now they can see my resilience has paid off and they appreciate the beauty of this sport. They also used to prevent my brother from playing football but they are now his biggest fans and they encourage him to head to football training at Kariobangi Sharks.”

Onyango was one of two “Hit Squad” fighters in the early evening action on Friday with superheavyweight Clinton Macharia falling to Smiahlikau Uladzislau of Belarus on points on the other end of the weighing scale in the super heavyweight division (92-plus kgs).

Macharia, 27, fighting in the red corner, started off well, taking Round One 4-1 before Uladzislau made his experience count, recovering in the second round to tie the game at 5-5 before dominating the final round.

“Midway the second round, the humidity got to me – the humidity here is quite something. It was difficult to get the punches out,” Macharia explained after the bout, consoled by the fact that he won the first round and sounded a serious warning to the more experienced Uladzislau.

“He has felt it and knows out there in Kenya, there’s someone coming. I’ve made a mark and at the end of the day Uladzislau knows there’s someone coming.

“I’ll now get back to the gym, strategise and come up with a fresh plan… I’m happy because comparing myself with him, he’s more experienced, more exposed but when he goes back and settles down, he knows there’s a strong opponent coming,” said Kinuthia who started his elite boxing career at Kenya Prisons before joining the Omar Kasongo Sports Academy (OKSA), Kibra and now Kenya Police.

‘Hit Squad’ results and schedule at the IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium:

Thursday, December 4:

• Heavyweight, 86-92kg: Peter Abuti lost to Bakyt Ululu Toktosun (Kyrgyzstan) 1-4;
• Bantamweight, 51-54kgs: Shaffi Bakari defeated Dawd Zekerya Kedir (Ethiopia) 5-0;

Friday, December 5:

• Super heavyweight, 92kgs plus: Clinton Macharia lost to Smiahlikau Uladzislau (Belarus) 
• Minimumweight, 46-48kgs: Sylus Onyango lost to Danil Hasika Tissaaratchy (Sri Lanka) 
• Light heavyweight, 75-80kgs: Robert Okaka beat Vinogradov Anton (Estonia) 
• Welterweight, 63.5-67kgs: Wiseman Mwathe lost to Hovhannes Bachkov (Armenia)
• Cruiserweight, 80-86kg: Chrispine Ochanda lost to Andrei Chiriakov (Moldova) 

Saturday, December 6:

• Lightweight, 57-60kgs: Washington Wandera Wabwire vs Fahad Mulindwa (Uganda) – 9pm – Ring B;
• Middleweight, 71-75kgs: Edwin Okongo vs Kapuler Ishchenko Miroslav (Israel) – 5pm – Ring B;
• Flyweight, 48-51kgs: Kelvin Maina Michira vs Daniyal Sabit (Kazakhstan) – 9pm – Ring A;

Sunday, December 7:

• Light welter, 60-63.5kgs: Caleb Wandera vs Lucas Mariano Villalba (Argentina) – 5pm – Ring A;
• Featherweight, 54-57kgs: Paul Omondi Onguku vs Ahmed Alkoum (Libya) – 5pm – Ring B;
• Light Middleweight, 67-71kgs: Boniface Mogunde vs Sarkan Aliyev (Azerbaijan) – 9pm – Ring B;

elias.makori@ymail.com