NAIROBI (Kenya) - George Mayienga is the man charged with the task of driving Kenya women's basketball back to the top once again.

The 53-year-old tactician whose journey as a coach started in 1996 in the lakeside city of Kisumu, was on Monday appointed by the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) as the Lioness head coach.

The team parades at the Nyayo National Stadium gymnasium on May 1st to start preparations for the 2021 FIBA Women's AfroBasket Zone Five Qualifiers in June after an introduction meeting at the same venue a day earlier.

After their heroics in Dakar, Senegal in 1992 where Kenya bagged the silver medal in the AfroBasket and booked a ticket to the 1994 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Australia the performance of Lionesses in Africa had plummeted to an all-time low.

Kenya finished last both in the 2007 and 2019 tournaments and the abysmal results were ionically witnessed in the Senegalese city where they also had the greatest joy with a podium finish.

George Mayienga and his United States International University at FIBA Africa Women's Champions Cup in Mozambique 

Mayienga who started his coaching career with a high school team - Kamukunji Secondary in 1996 and for the ten years he was there, guided them to three national championships.

During that time, they also finished, runners-up five time and ended up third to complete an impressive scorecard.

He joined United States International University (USIU) Africa in 2004 and getting them off to just the start they needed as they  immediately won the East Africa University Games in Nairobi.

At the same time worked Laiser Hill Academy guiding them to the national school championships in 2008. He won it again a year later adding the regional crown to his cabinet before moving to Nairobi International School (NIS) in 2010.

His stars continued to shine as he won both the national and regional titles with NIS while continuing to build a strong programme at the institution.

Mayienga battled top guns like Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Eagle Wings in the national classic league. He managed to finished third 2011 before finishing runners-up in 2012 and 2013.

Under coach Ronnie Owino, Kenya finished 11th at the 12-nation 2019 Women's AfroBasket in Dakar, Senegal

By finishing second in the league, he earned the tickets to the FIBA Africa Zone Five Club championships in Bujumbura, Burundi and Kigali Rwanda and Mombasa three times in a row.

From 2013 Mayienga also took USIU to four straight continental club championships in Morocco, Tunisia, Angola and Mozambique where he battled against Africa's best.

The showdown in Luanda will also remained etched in his mind forever as one of his key players center Zainab Sarah Chan Luol was named among the top five performers in the tournament.

Sarah Chan led all players in scoring at 2015 Africa Champions for Women before being named to the All-Tournament team

Mayienga gained so much exposure playing both in the region and the continent as this resulted in him winning the national league crowns in 2015 and 2016

He rejoined Laiser Hill in 2017 and again won the national schools championships. He repeated the feat a year latter before deciding to move to Kampala, Uganda in 2020 to join LSK Dolphins.

Mayienda told FIBA.basketball he is ready for the task ahead and has his work cut out for him when he returns to Nairobi to start his new assignment. 

But before he returns Kenya to Africa podium, he must first navigate the tricky FIBA Zone Five waters that include debutants Southern Sudan and perennial rivals Egypt and Uganda.

FIBA