NAIROBI (Kenya) - Kenyan Ronnie Owino passion for basketball and his insatiable desire for success both as a player and coach is well known to all throughout the region.

From the tender age of eleven when he was introduced to the sport by his late uncle Elijah “Niger” Aduke, a former Kenya international himself, he has not looked back.

When he made his first trip outside the country as a national team player 35 years ago while a student, the doors seemed wide open from that juncture.

Today Owino, born in the lakeside town of Kisumu in 1964 is well known throughout Africa having traversed the continent for over three decades as a player, coach and now a FIBA coaches' instructor. He has visited African 25 countries.

He started playing club basketball while in high school and blossomed at the University of Nairobi in 1984 where he stared for the campus team popularly known as “Terrorists”.

At 19 years, his dazzling exploits as a point guard saw him earn his first call up to the Kenya team in 1983. But it was two years later that he debuted for Kenya in the FIBA AfroBasket in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.

"We didn't do well in that championship and we were placed last but the trip was an eye-opener as we competed against some of the best teams in the continent," the 57-year-old recalled.

Owino was a member of the Kenya team that did duty in the fourth All-Africa Games in Nairobi in 1987. The team finished fourth.

After the All-Africa Games qualifiers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1990, Kenya landed a trip to Kentucky, USA where they trained for two weeks for the Pan African Games.

Owino said the preparations in USA paid dividends as Kenya had an impressive outing in Egypt. Kenya closely lost 95-91 to the pharaohs at their own back yard.

Kenya went to Luanda, Angola for the FIBA AfroBasket championship in 1989 and again it proved a tough assignment as they were placed last again.

“Even though we lost all our games, this time round, we gave a good account of ourselves and had fond memories of the tournament.” He told FIBA.basketball.

On current Kenya Morans team, Owino quips, "the diaspora players have made the team better due to exposure they have gained while playing outside the country."

Owino's first club after graduation was Kenya Airways where he stayed briefly before moving to Posta. Here he guided the team to their first national title in 1989.

In 1992 he led Posta to three straight titles, the first team to achieve that feat. They also won the inaugural East, Central and Southern Africa championships in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1995.

When Kenya hosted the FIBA AfroBasket show in Nairobi in 1993, Owino was named an assistant coach and the team went on to lose in the Semi-Finals.

Angola lifted the 1993 AfroBasket in Nairobi

Owino went to Budapest, Hungary in 1994 when Olympic Solidarity sponsored him for Higher National Diploma in sports at the University of Physical Education.

It was in during the same year that he also travelled to Madrid, Spain for a workshop sponsored by Pedro Fernandez Foundation. 

Now fully armed as tactician, Owino led Posta to the FIBA Africa Club Championship in 1995 against Egyptian side National who bundled them out of the competition over two legs.

In 1997, Owino was tasked with handling the Kenya women’s team in the FIBA AfroBasket show in Nairobi in 1997. They finished in fourth place.

After Posta, Owino joined KCB Lionesses women’s side guiding the bankers to back to back national league titles in 1997 and 1998.

Between that time and 2000 he also won the regional show in Kampala, Uganda and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with two different teams.

He moved to Post Bank men’s team in 2003 guiding them to third place in the national league before clinching the regional title crown again in Kampala.

In 2004, Owino went to Kinshasa, DR Congo for a FIBA Africa coaches' clinic. He qualified as an instructor and has conducted clinics in many countries.

His latest assignments being earlier this year in Mozambique and Tchad. "FIBA Clinics for U 18 is huge," he said. "We had coaching with coaches as well as training session with the players."

"We taught fundamentals and skill development, equipped the players with the necessary skills to play the game both technical and tactical.'

The number of coaches in both countries were approximately 60. The impact will be massive as the coaches will use this knowledge to grow the game.

He was the head coach of the Kenya Lionesses women’s team to the All Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria in 2007. He led Kenya to position five.

He followed that assignment with another FIBA AfroBasket duty in Maputo, Mozambique with his last duty for Kenya in Dakar, Senegal in 2019. Kenya wound up in 11 position.

Currently Owino is the head coach of premier league side Strathmore University and also the long serving chairman of the Nairobi Basketball Association (NBA).

He sums it up by saying, Kenya has massive talents and the exposure that was lacking in the years before have now been gained with many players now plying their trade abroad.

FIBA