Vivian Akinyi’s story is one of resilience and grit.
From playing street football with boys in Nairobi’s informal settlement of Mathare at the age of nine to playing for the national women’s football team, Harambee Starlets, and currently managing a Women’s Premier League team in addition to a blossoming musical career, Vivian is a winner.
Together with her twin sister Sharon, Vivian was inspired to play football by her elder brother Brycal Omondi. Brycal was the reason their mother allowed them to play on the pitch with excitement.
“It was amazing but on the other side, there were challenges. The neighbours would ask my mum, ‘Why are your daughters playing with boys? You know if they play with boys one might end up pregnant. But mum ignored them and told us, ‘After you’re done with your chores, just go and play.’ My elder brother was a coach and mum knew that he would take good care of us,” he says.
The twins also had to confront gender stereotypes on the pitch, as their male teammates refused to play with them. Again, their big brother came to their rescue. Since he owned the ball, he made the rules. The boys had to suck it up and battle it out with the girls.
The twins’ next challenge was at MCO primary where they were excluded from selection for primary school games due to their small stature and young age. Their steely determination led them to switch schools and join their rival, Valley Academy, on a football scholarship. The icing on the cake was soundly beating MCO in the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) league to the shock of their former teachers.
The climax of participating in the MYSA league was travelling to Norway to play in international tournaments. Vivian and Sharon were determined to fly out but their first attempt at selection ended with them being the butt of jokes.
“When Sharon and I first went for trials, we had no shoes. The other players called us ‘washamba’ (villagers) and the coach refused to let us even get onto the pitch,” recalls Vivian.
It took two more attempts before both Vivian, a goalkeeper, and Sharon, a defender, would eventually get a ticket to Norway. This was both the fulfilment of a childhood dream and the opening of the floodgates of success at the age of 14.
“That trip to Norway changed everything. When we came back, I joined Mathare United Women and started playing in the women’s premier league when I was in class eight in 2008. I also got a call-up to the national women’s team. I then went on to play in Safaricom’s Sakata Ball tournament in 2012. My biggest success was playing for Harambee Starlets at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon in 2016,” she says.
For a girl who started her football career on the dusty pitches in Mathare, playing at the continent’s biggest stage in Cameroon was an incredible achievement.
“Everything you want to do in life, let nobody tell you that you cannot do it. I am an example that you can do it all,” was Vivian’s rallying call to young footballers during a Safaricom Chapa Dimba clinic held at the Moi Stadium in Kisumu ahead of the Nyanza region finals.
Sakata Ball which Vivian participated in, and which ran for two editions, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 was the forerunner to Safaricom Chapa Dimba. Launched with the tagline “The Safaricom Soccer Challenge, Live the Dream”, the tournament was open to players between 17 and 23 years.
During her illustrious goalkeeping career, Vivian played for various Women’s Premier League teams, including Mathare United Women, Makolanders, Soccer Queens, and Gaspo Women.
Vivian, who was named the best goalkeeper in the 2010 national school games while playing for Siaya’s Sega Girls, retired in 2022 at the age of 28. This was at the instigation of the club chairman, Edward Gathua, who offered her a new challenge. She currently serves as the team manager for Gaspo Women, based in Gatundu, which secured a second-place finish behind Vihiga in the women’s league last season.
“At first, I was reluctant to retire because I felt I was still young and still wanted to play but upon reflection, I accepted the offer. It has been quite the transition. It is not easy but if leadership is in you then you can manage. There is life after football. Think about what you will do after football. Do you have any other thing? Do you have the papers? For me, I now want to be a great team manager. I want to go back to school and learn about football management,” she says.
While she has transitioned to a different role in the football space, Vivian, along with her identical twin sister Sharon, also belts out actual songs.
The Komullo (their surname) Twins first went to the studio in 2016 on a dare after impressing their Harambee Starlets teammates with their vocal prowess while at a training camp. They have a nine-song album to their name.
The ever-smiling Vivian distilled her 15-minute pep talk in one line, “You just have to keep working towards your goals, stay humble, be disciplined and success will come.”
The football clinic in which Vivian gave her talk was held on Friday, September 29, 2023, as part of community engagement activities conducted in the lead-up to the Safaricom Chapa Dimba regional finals.
The clinic saw the young footballers from the Nyanza region receive mentorship and learn about the GPS-wearable tech that Safaricom has incorporated into the fourth edition of Chapa Dimba.
