Ray Bachelor was a sports officer at Kenya's Coast province during the colonial days. He first became national team coach in 1961. His tenure as national team coach was turbulent. At one point during the CECAFA cup in Zanzibar, he was forced out after a player revolt. He was on the bench during the 1965 match against Ghana when Kenya lost by the largest margin in its history (13-0). To be fair to him, he had taken over as coach only 4 hours before kickoff after then coach Peter Oronge developed cold feet and abandoned the team. Bachelor later became coach of Nakuru All Stars and steered them to winning the national league title in 1964.    Peter Oronge Peter Oronge had been one of the best players for Kenya when the country gained Independence in 1963. A short while later he was appointed national team coach based largely on his exploits as a player. He gained infamy in 1965 when he abandoned the national team only hours before the match against Ghana that was played to Celebrate Kenya's first anniversary as an independent republic. Perhaps it was the fact that it had just been announced that President Jomo Kenyatta was going to attend the match.   Jackie Gibbons  The Englishman Jackie Gibbons played in the English league. As a player, he featured as a striker for Totenham Hotspur in the English top tier league.   In 1956, he became coach of the Israel national team. He later coached an Israeli side, Hapoel Petah Tikva. In 1966, he came to Kenya as an employee of Coca Cola and in 1966 he became national team coach.  Elijah Lidonde Elijah Lidonde is one of the most acclaimed players in the history of Kenya football. It is largely due to his fame that he was selected as national team coach in 1967. Lidonde became famous while playing for Abaluhya FC. He was reknown for his powerful shots. Legend has it that in the 1950s, he once broke a European goalkeepers hand when the  atter tried to save a shot from Lidonde. And mark you in those days, Kenya players played barefoot. Eckard Krautzun  The young German Eckard Krautzun arrived in Kenya in 1970 as an ambitious 29 year old. Harambee Stars was only his second coaching job after having coach Young Fellows Zurich. Under his coaching, Kenya qualified for the Africa cup of Nations for the first time ever.  After coaching Kenya, he became coach of the Canadian national team. He later coached the Vancover Whitecaps in the North American soccer league. There he coached world football legends like Teofillo Cubillas of Peru and Gerd Muller of West Germany. He had an illustrious career that saw him coach teams in the German Bundesliga. In 2002, he took the Tunisian national team to the world cup.    Jonathan Niva  Niva became player coach as Kenya embarked on their campaign for the 1972 Africa cup of nations. During that tournament, Kenya put on a respectable  erformance. In the opening game they lost 1-2 to Cameroun. In that game Niva scored from a memorable direct free kick. The last two matches against Togo and Mali ended in 1-1 draws.  He was player coach of Abaluhya FC until 1978 when he retired as a player to become a full time coach. He had a second stint as Harambee stars coach in 1978. He helped the German Bernard Zgoll establish the national yout Olympic centres.    Ray Wood  Prior to becoming a coach, the Englishman Ray Wood had been an outstanding goalkeeper for Manchester United. To this day he is recognized as one of the best goalkeepers ever to play for United. He was one the players who was injured during the Muninch air disaster in which 23 people died including several Manchester United players.  Before becoming the Kenya national team coach, he had coached the Los Angeles Wolves in the North American soccer league. He had been national coach of Cyprus. He coached   nya to winning its first ever CECAFA senior challenge cup.  He also coached top Cyprior side APOEL Nicosia. Besides coaching in Kenya, he also coached clubs in , Ireland, Zambia, Canada, Greece, Kenya, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates.   Grzegorz Polakow (Gregory Palakov) The Polish Gregory Palakov coached Kenya during the 1979 CECAFA senior challenge cup where Kenya reached the final. Kenyan journalist Roy Gachuhi describes Palakov as a dour man who was more prone to discuss the negative aspects of his team than the positive ones.  Before coming to Kenya, he had coached several teams in the Polish top tier and second tier leagues including LKS Lodz and Lechia Gdansk. As a player he had also played for Lechia Gdansk.   Marshall Mulwa  Marshall Mulwa is considered perhaps the most succesful coach ever to coach the Kenya national team. Under him, Kenya won three succesive CECAFA senior challenge cups from 1981 to 1983. In two of those  ournaments, Kenya beat the host team in the finals. Those who played under Mulwa say he was not much of a tactician but his biggest strength was his motivational skills. He could literally get players to run through brick walls for their country. Mulwa's also made it a point to select players from as many teams as possible and also made it a point to select players from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds He did not want the national team to be dominated by 2 or 3 ethnic groups. Mulwa said this was because in the early 1970s he was denied a spot in the national team because of his Kamba background.   Bernard Zgoll  The German Bernard Zgoll was Kenya coach in the 1970s and again briefly in 1984. He is most famous for having the Olympic Youth development centres all over Kenya to identify and groom young talent. These centres nurtured several ppayers who later made their mark for the national team including Wilberforce  ulamba, Dick Anyanga, Sammy Taabu, Joseph Odera, Josphat Murila and Sammy Onyango. But as national team coach, the results were not forthcoming and Kenya fans who wanted immediate results lost patience with Zgoll. So he left Kenya for the Philipines and with is departure, the Olympic youth centres also fell apart.   Chris Makokha  Chris Makokha had made his mark as a brilliant identifier of youth talent and as coach of Kakamega based Motcom FC . While at Motcom he also doubled up as coach of Kakamega high school. It was here that he made his mark leading the school to multiple national schools championships and grooming dozens of players who later played for Kenya's top clubs. No Kenyan coach has groomed more talent than Makokha. Whereas he was a brilliant youth coach, he had little to no success at the national team level. He was coach at the 1987 CECAFA cup and the 1988 Africa cup of nations, both of which were disastrous performances by the national team.  Danilo Alves The Brazilian Danilo Alves had a very short stint as technical advisor for harambee Stars. It happened in early 1988 when Harambee stars embarked on a month long tour of Brazil to enable them to prepare for the 1988 Africa cup of Nations. During the tour, Alves was seconded to Harambee stars by the Brazilian Federation. Previosly, Alves had coached top Brazilian side Botafogo in the late 1970s. During the three matches Kenya played at the 1988 cup of nations, one could decipher a definate Brazilian flavour to the way they played. There was a lot of short passing and plenty of possession. It was tika taka before Spain used it at the 2010 world cup. Unfortunately it was tiki taka with no chances created.  Gerry Saurer Gerry Saurer was an Austrian hotelier whose football coaching credentials were unclear. In the mid 1980s, he was hired as coach of AFC Leopards. In 1990 he became coach  of the Kenya under 21 team.He traversed the country identifying talent and  assembled what is probably the best youth team Kenya has ever assembled. In 1992 he was appointed national team coach. Saurer was very adept at identifying talent but as a tactician he was wanting and focused too much on physical fitness. He was Harambee stars coach at the 1992 Africa cup of nations.  Vojo Gardasevic The Montenegrin Gardasevic was hired as Harambee stars coach in 1996 after a stellar performance as coach of Gor Mahia whom he coached to the national league title in 1995. His most famous accomplishment was beating then continental giants Algeria in a 1996 encounter.  Harambee stars won the first leg 3-1. In the second leg, Gardasevic employed a unique strategy where he deployed a 10 man defence, thus taking the "Parking the bus" concept to extreme levels.
 bdul Majid  Abdul Majid was hired as Harambee stars coach after having coached Rivatex FC in the national league. If there is ant blemish on an otherwise excellent tenure for Peter Kenneth as KFF chairman, it was the hiring of Majid. He had not accomplished much as Rivatex coach and did not accomplish anything as national team coach.  Christian Chukwu  Nigerian Christian Chukwu was appointed coach in 1998. As a player, Chukwu had an illustrious career with the Nigerian national team whom he captained to victory at the 1980 Africa cup of nations. He arrived amid high expectations. But his tenure did not yield any good fortune. Kenya finished at the bottom of their group for the 2000 Africa cup of nations, never having won a single game.  James Sianga  ames Sianga had been goalkeeper for the Kenya national team from Independence until the early 1970s. He played at the 1972 Africa nations cup. After that, he had been assistant national v team coach several times including at the 1988 Africa cup of nations. He was appointed head coach of the national team in 1999 and lasted until 2000. He steered Kenya to the 1999 CECAFA cup final where they lost to Rwanda in the final.  Reinhard Fabisch Of all the coaches who have ever coached Kenya, none have ever been more popular with the Kenyan public than Reinhard Fabisch. The charismatic German had three stints as Kenya coach. He first arrived in 1987 as a youthful but ambitious 36 year old. He had been seconded by the German government.  One of the first things he did was to organize a monthlong tour of Germany by the national team. During the tour, Harambee Stars played 10 friendly matches against lower tier German teams. The trip paid off as Kenya performed extremely well at the 4th All African games, reaching the final and coming within a whisker of winning gold. A few months later, the Fabisch led Harambee Stars qualified for the Africa cup of nations after a 16 year absence. He fell out of the KFF led by Job Omino who famously remarked "Coaches come in dozens". This did not amuse the Kenyan public with whom Fabisch had become very popular. His second stint came in 1997. Upon taking over the national team, he quickly became impatient with the senior players. He dropped all of them and went about recruiting youthful players to replace them. His youthful charges capatured the imagination of the public when they went on a winning run. The most famous match was against the much feared Super Eagles of Nigeria who had just won the 1996 Olympic gold medal. The youthful Kenyans held the Nigerians to a 1-1 draw at Kasarani. Unfortunately Harambee stars fell short of qualifying for either the cup of nations or the world cup.  His third and final stint started in 2001. He once again went about rebuilding a youthful team. He was the one who gave  Dennis Oliech his national team debut. Dissapointment came in 2002 when he reached the final of the CECAFA senior challenge cup only to loose to hosts Rwanda. When criticized he responded :  "Those expecting instant results should instead hire the services of Jesus Christ,”. By then the KFF had lost patience with Fabisch because he constantly criticized them for failing to provide support to the national team. He was this fired in 2002. But the team he built qualified for the Africa cup of nations after a 12 year hiatus.  Joe Kadenge  As far as Kenya playing legends, they do not come any bigger than Joe Kadenge. As a player, he earned fame as a winger for the national team in the 1960s. He had been Harambee stars team-manager several times , most notably at the 1988 Africa nations cup.  Mohamed Kheri Mohamed Kheri is one of the best local coaches ever. He had several stints as national team coach. The first was in 1988 to 1990 then again in 1995 and again in 2005. Prior to that, he had been the assistant coach to Marshall Mulwa in the early to mid 1980s. But he first came to prominence when he led Bandari FC which at the time was in the provincial leagues to the final of the domestic cup, then known as the Moi Golden cup in 1986. They came agonisingly close to winning it before loosing to Gor Mahia 0-1 in the final. As coach in 1989, he led the national team to qualification of the 1990 Africa cup of nations. He also took the team to the verge of qualifying for the world cup. This was the closest Kenya ever came to qualifying for the world cup and the only time that Kenya was still in contention on the last day of qualifying. On that last day, Kenya met Egypt in Cairo. Beating Egypt would mean Kenya qualifies. The two teams had settled for a scoreless draw in Nairobi. Kenya thought they had taken the the lead when a header by Austin Oduor sailed into the net. But the referee cancelled the goal claiming the Egyptian keeper had been fouled. Had the goal stood, Kenya might have parked the bus for the remainder of the game and qualified for the world cup. But the dissallowed goal opened up the game and Egypt scored twice to dim switch off Kenya's hopes. Kheri's subsequent stints as national team coach in 1995 and 2005 were far less succesful. In his 2005 stint, he had to deal with Dennis Oliech going strike. He had gone on strike to protest the shabby treatment that Kenya players were receiving at the hands of KFF. Bernard Lama  Lama had been the goalkeeper of the French National team. He was appointed Harambee Stars coach by KFF team led by Alfred Sambu. It was his first head coaching job. His arrival brought instant interest from France and there were French TV crews televising Harambee Stars matches during his tenure.  Upon arrival he famously marvelled at how Kenya players lacked basic football fundamentals like ball control, tactical awareness and positioning. The poor management by FKF did not help either and results were poor. Most notable was a 1-2 loss to Eritrea at home. At one point Lama quit in a huff. On the way out he heavily criticized the KFF for incompetence and inability to manage the national team and declared that he could not work under such conditions. His decision to quit was secretly welcomed by KFF. Thus when Lama decided to come back, the KFF declined to give him his position back. His tenure lasted only three games.  om Olaba Tom Olaba was appointed interim coach when Bernard Lama quit. Prior to that he had also coached several local teams since the 1980s with Bata Bullets. He had also coached teams in the Tanzanian league like Mtibwa Sugar.   Jacob "Ghost" Mulee   Jacob Muleee earned the nickname "Ghost" during his playing days when he was a goalkeeper for Kenya Breweries FC,  ow known as Tusker FC. He had several stints as national team coach. The most succesful when was his first stint between 2003 and 2004. It was at this point that he led the Harambee Stars to the 2004 Africa Nations cup after a 12 year hiatus.  He had subsequent stints in 2005 and 2007 but these were not as succesful. At one point he was accused of using his position as Stars coach to coerce players to joining Kenya Breweries from where he could market them to European teams for financial gain.  Francis Kimanzi   Kimanzi had two stints with the national team. The first was from 2008 to 2009 and the second from 2011 to 2012. His first stint was far more succesful than the second. Prior to coaching Harambee stars he had coached Mathare United and led them to winning the league title in 2008. His defining moment however came during the qualifiers for the 2010 Africa Nations cup and World cup. As coach he led the national team to its highest ever FIFA ranking at 69. He led the team to identical 2-0 wins at home to Zimbabwe and Guinea, a 1-0 win over Namibia and an away draw with Zimabwe. Fans held banner signs that read "Kimanzi for President". But he was equally popular amongst the players especially captain Dennis Oliech.  However at the end of 2008, his boss Bob Munro fell out with FKL officials and Kimanzi resigned his position. Even a hue outcry by fans and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga could not convince Kimanzi to return.  Antoine Hey  With the departure of Kimanzi, FKL hired German Antoine Hey. The decision to hire Hey was typical of the sheer incompetence of FKL under Mohamed Hatimy. So Hey was hired in 2009. His record in Africa was spotty at best. As coach of the Liberian National team, he had not won even a single game. His record at Harambee Stars was not much better. Under Hey, Harambee stars lost to Tunisia both home and away, Lost 0-3 to Nigeria and 0-1 to Mozambique away. His only win was a 2-1 win at home to Mozambique.   But even more pivotal was his acrimonious relationship with the players especially team captain and dependable goal scorer Dennis Oliech whom Hey suspended indefinitely. The Players as well as fans were clamouring for the dismissal of Hey and the return of Kimanzi. Meanwhile Hey wanted to prove that he could win without Oliech.  When FKF the brass Mohamed Hatimy, Titus Kasuve and Erastus Okul intervened to re-instate Oliech, Hey quit in a huff and was replaced by  Twahir Muhiddin. Twahir Muhiddin  The vastly experienced Muhiddin has had several stints with Harambee Stars starting in the 1980s when he was the assistant coach to Mohamed Kheri. His credentials are impeccable. He first garnered national attention when he led unfancied Oserian to win the national league in 2001. Oserian also posted good results in continental  ootball against Egyptian and Tunisian sides.  Under him Harambee stars often posted good results and played exciting football. He however was frustrated by an inept and incompetent national federation particularly under Mohamed Hatimy.  After a dissapointing 0-1 loss to Guinea Bissau, Muhiddin quit as national team coach in 2012 saying that the national federation was useless and was the cause of poor performances by the national team.   edekiah Otieno   Popularly known as "Zico" since his playing days when he played for Gor Mahia and the national team, Zedekiah Otieno was appointed interim Harambee Stars coach in 2011. At the time he was also the coach of Gor Mahia FC. He posted fairly decent results as national coach and the team showed good structure and a decent level of tactical discipline. His most famous match was away against Uganda where the Stars forced the Uganda Cranes to a scoreless draw thus denying the Ugandans a chance to go to the 2012 Africa cup of nations. Henri Michel  Michel was hired at a colossal salary of Ksh 8 million per month, half of which was to go to him and the other half to his two assistants. FKF Chairman Sam Nyamweya had hired him under the assumption that the government would pay that huge salary. That was a big miscalculation. On top of that, Michel was housed at the Hilton hote during his stay in Kenya. His huge salary was a result of his impressive resume. He had been the France national team coach when they won the European Championships in 1984, the Olympic gold medal in 1984 and 3rd place at the 1986 World cup. He had also coached several top African national teams and club teams. One curious issue was that he could not speak any English at all. He was completely dependent on one of his assistants to translate instructions and interviews.    When the 2012 CECAFA cup came around, Michel declared that he would not coach at the tournament, terming it a useless tournament. He wanted to instead focus on the CHAN. Nicholas Musonye , the CECAFA Chairman took exception with Michel's remarks and even said that CECAFA did not need Kenya and that Michel should worry about where the money for his huge salary would come from. Those words were almost prophetic as Michel soon quit. It became clear that after four months on the job, he had not been paid a single cent.   ames Nandwa   Nandwa was initially the assistant coach to Frenchman Henri Michel. When Michel quit, Nandwa was appointed as interim coach. In 2012, Michel had declined to take the national team to the CECAFA senior challenge cup. Nandwa took the team and they managed to reach the final before loosing to hosts Uganda in the final. And it was not even the strongest team Kenya could field since at the time, the Kenya national team had been split into two: One to play in the CHAN and the other to play in the CECAFA senior challenge cup.  Adel Amrouche Amrouche was a Belgian national of Algerian descent. Prior to coaching Harambee Stars, he had been coach of  the Burundi national team. When applying for the position, he had even offered to coach for free for the first 3 months. Amrouche brought a level of tactical discipline especially in defence that has rarely been seen in Kenya. This was evident when Kenya held Nigeria away 1-1. Prior to that, matches between Kenya and Nigeria almost always ended 0-3 losses.   A year into his tenure, Amrouche suffered the ignominy of going four months with no pay and was even thrown out of his apartment a number of times when FKF led by Sam Nyamweya failed to pay his dues. He protested this by refusing to show up for the first match of the 2013 CECAFA senior challenge cup. Nevertheless the Amrouche coached team won the tournament for the first time in 11 years. After that victory, he was offered a 5 year contract guaranteed by the government.