Grassroots coaching
Structured, age-appropriate training that develops technique, game intelligence and fitness — from first touch to professional pathway.
Football & Soccer Academy · Nairobi, Kenya
NurturingFuture Stars
Developing young talent from the grassroots of Kibera to the professional level — through football.
Youth team recruitment is open
Season 2026/2027 starts now.
Current U20 East Africa Ligi Ndogo Tournament Champions
KESA is recruiting talented and committed young players aged 15–18 to join our Youth Team for the 2026/2027 season. Come to the first meeting, meet the coaches and train with the squad.
Ngong Road
Academy Programme
- Saturday3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- Sunday3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Lavington
High Performance Programme
- Sunday11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
- Tuesday · Intensive session5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Register early for the upcoming tournaments and the 2026/2027 season programme.
1,200+
Children reached since inception
2015
Year KESA was founded
4–23
Age range we develop
7
Community programmes
Football as a route out.
Kibera Elite Soka Academy (KESA) is a community-based organisation that uses football to engage, inspire and unite children growing up in one of Africa's largest informal settlements. We meet young people where they are — on a dusty field at the edge of the slum — and walk with them toward something bigger.
Kibera is home to hundreds of thousands of people and is widely recognised as one of the largest slums on the African continent. For a child born here, opportunity is scarce and the pull of the streets is constant.
KESA exists to change that story. Since our founding we have built a safe, disciplined space where talent is spotted early, character is shaped, and every child is reminded that where they come from does not decide where they can go.
What began as ten boys training after school has grown into a full grassroots academy running seven community programmes — coaching, mentorship, girls’ football, girls’ mentorship, mental health, crime prevention and community engagement — reaching families across Kibera and the wider Kibra ward.
We are not only building footballers. We are building confident, healthy young people who believe in themselves and give back to the community that raised them.
Governance & people
Registered CBO in Nairobi
KESA is formally registered as a Community-Based Organisation, accountable to its members, its board and the community it serves.
Professional volunteers on the board and staff
Our board and staff bring professional experience from outside sport — governance, administration and community work — given voluntarily to keep the academy well run.
Qualified coaches
Every session is led by certified coaches, and we invest in ongoing coach education to keep raising the standard of the game.
Physiotherapists & first-aid responders
Trained physiotherapists support player welfare and recovery, and first-aid responders are on hand so injuries are treated properly and quickly.
KESA is the feeder team for Kibera Black Stars, and we work in partnership with Elevate Sports and German School Nairobi, where we also run a KESA programme. And because we work with children, women and girls, our child, gender & safeguarding policy is published in full for anyone to read.
More than a game.
Football is our doorway. Through it we run programmes that protect, mentor and grow the whole child — on the pitch and far beyond it.
Mentorship
Every player is guided by coaches and role models who help them set goals, stay in school and make good choices off the pitch.
Girls' football
A dedicated programme creating space, teams and opportunity for girls in a setting where they are too often left on the sidelines.
Calvin Owiti
In 2015, Calvin Owiti set out to give the children of Kibera what football gave him — belonging, discipline and hope.
A coach at Nairobi's French School Elite Soccer Academy, he saw talent everywhere in Kibera but nowhere for it to grow. With no field, he converted a small patch of ground by the side of the slum and began training ten children aged four to eight — raw talent, but no gear, no pitch and no pathway.
They came back every evening after school, and that became KESA — led today by a team of certified coaches who share his conviction: every child in Kibera deserves the chance to reach the professional level.
Coach · French School Elite Soccer Academy, Nairobi
“We started with ten kids and a field by the side of the slum. What we were really building was belief.”
Help us go further.
Talent in Kibera is not the problem — opportunity is. Our children train without proper gear, on inadequate ground, held back only by resources. With the right partners, we can change that. Here is where your support makes the difference:
Financial donations & sponsorship
Flexible funding that keeps sessions running, covers transport to matches and sustains our community programmes.
A proper playing ground & facilities
Access to, or investment in, a safe and dependable pitch — our single greatest need after years on a makeshift field.
Football gear & equipment
Boots, kits, balls, cones and goalposts — the basics that let every child train with dignity.
Ready to change a childhood?
Every kit, every school fee and every hour on the pitch comes from someone who chose to step in. Talk to us about how you can help.