Football Kenya Federation (FKF), the government and clubs must come together and explore ways of reining in acts of hooliganism and crowd trouble in local football matches.

It is sad that the 2025/2026 Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League had barely kicked off last weekend than chaos was witnessed, ruining gains made during the 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan) held in August.

CHAN left a lasting legacy for the country with the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani and Nyayo National Stadium finally getting the Confederation of Africa Football’s (CAF’s) approval with the country’s security apparatus learning how to control crowds.

Harambee Stars were able to play their 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying match against Gambia on September 5 where Kenya lost 3-1 before recovering to beat Seychelles 5-0 five days later in the same competition.

However, MISC was turned into a battlefield before the match between Gor Mahia, and Bidco United on Sunday as Police lobbed teargas, and fired in the air to scare away a section of Gor Mahia fans, who attempted to force their way into the stadium by climbing the inner rail.

FKF must rein in these clubs in view of stemming out acts of hooliganism as it raises questions on whether Kenya picked any lessons from Chan.

Kenya was fined a total of Sh12.8m by CAF for crowd trouble at several matches during CHAN hence local clubs will wake up to reality if they are hit with similar harsh penalties owing to their fans’ trouble.

This directly affected FKF’s revenue as well as painting the country’s image badly.

Such chaos will put the country on CAF radar with the potential of matches being moved away from Nairobi to other countries.

Perhaps FKF needs to engage the 2027 AFCON Local Organising Committee in managing these important venues and blacklist clubs whose fans cause trouble from using the facilities.