When it comes to international competitions, the Kenya womens basketball team has been far more succesful than their male counterparts. The Kenya mens basketball team has qualified for the Africa basketball championships twice (1985 and 1989). In 1993, Kenya qualified as hosts in 1993.

The mens basketball team has been to the All Africa games once. That is in 1987.

Kenya at the 1985 Africa Basketball Championships


Kenya made its debut in the African championships in 1985. This was the era of players like "Big" Sam Omolle, the towering centre as well as Jafred Amungune and Philip Yugi. The inexperienced Kenya side were overwhelmed by the event. They found the the standards too high and were clearly unprepared. They lost all six games to finish 12th out of 12 teams. The scores were as follows

Kenya at the 1987 All African Games Basketball Competition



In 1987 Kenya hosted the All Africa games and this qualified automatically. This time Kenya gave a good account of themselves thanks largely to the partisan home crowd. They finished fourth missing a medal by a whisker.
 

Kenya at the 1989 Africa Basketball Championships



In 1989, Kenya were back again at the African championships. Their performance this  time was better than in the 1985 edition. The scores were more respectable this time:

Kenya at the 1993 Basketball Championships


Kenya Hosted the 1993 Africa basketball championships. In the Kenya line-up pn that occasion were players like the amazingly athletic Ben Wanjara, who would later play for George Mason University in the USA. Then there were others like Ronnie Swaka, Ben Rateng. Lawi Odera, a sharp shooting three point specialist, who had starred with 30 points for KPA when they shocked Egyptian giants Al Ahly a year earlier, missed the tourney due to school commitments at Mombasa Polytechnic. It was a shame because Odera was easily the best Kenya player of the early 1990s and one of the best basketball players Kenya has ever produced. Also missing was another sharp shooting guard Fred Omondi who broke his arm weeks before the tournament.

Lawi Odera Kenya basketball
Basketball legend Lawi Odera

Without two key players, Kenya struggled. Kenya beat Algeria 80 to 50 in the opening game. The most memorable moment of that game was a monster dunk by Ben Wanjara over a bewildered Algerian defender that sent the crowd into a near delirium. After winning the first game, Kenya lost the next two but managed to make the semi-finals by having a better point differential.

 

Kenya at the 2019 AFROCAN