•The veteran tactician believes with Mjomba is still very central to the team in as far as mentoring the upcoming players is concerned
•While there is little doubt that Mjomba has lost part of the spark that made her an astute point guard, her skills are still intact.
Image: ERICK BARASA
National women’s Premier league champions Equity Bank Hawks head coach David Maina believes play-maker Betty Samba Mjomba still has the legs to continue doing what she does best —driving the team to more glory.
The veteran tactician believes Mjomba is still very central to the team in as far as mentoring the upcoming players is concerned.
While there is little doubt that Mjomba has lost part of the spark that made her an astute point guard, her skills are still intact. Her ball handling prowess, vision and ability to hit the open team-mate makes her a force to reckon with.
At 35, she can’t possibly be the same player she was years back. However, her performance in the decisive Premier League play-off finals Game Five tie against Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) last year remains memorable.
With dangerous Bettie Kananu watching from the sides after suffering a nasty injury, many thought the bankers would not have enough offensive fire-power to stop the star-studded Kenya Ports Authority side, who were out to reclaim their glory.
But Mjomba had other ideas. She logged 35:59 minutes in that encounter but of more significance was how she controlled the ball while teaming up well with the rest. She played over 30 minutes in series.
She sunk six points; had 4 assists; 2 steals and pulled down 4 rebounds (two on both ends of the floor) in that 61-51 triumph. It was a determined display as they deservedly wrapped up the five game series.
She used her long experience to dictate the tempo of the game when KPA threatened to turn the tables. And that display came only weeks after she had an indifferent performance in the Afro-Basket women’s show in Dakar, Senegal.
Equity Bank went to Mombasa for the opening two games and stunned KPA 63-59 in Game One at their own backyard. The hosts then turned the tables in Game Two with a close 56-50 victory.
The series moved to Nyayo National Stadium gymnasium, Nairobi, the following weekend for Game Three, which Equity Bank won 54-51. KPA dictated the proceedings emphatically winning Game Four 69-53 a day later.
Mjomba had a five months break last year due to mental and physical drain. “I needed the break to chart my next move as my knee needed some sort of rest,” she said. She was motivated back by coaches Ben Oluoch and Sylvia Kamau as well as her team mates.
The good news for Maina is that Mjomba has no plans to quit any time soon. She will be available for as long as her body doesn’t give up. “For me, basketball is my resting place and gives me peace. If it stops being that, then I guess I will look for some other hobby to get into.” she revealed.
Many a times, she has used her trade mark moves to destroy opponents. Give her a metre and she will no doubt cover a kilometre.
Mark her tight and she will use her intelligence to zip a pass to an open team-mate for a shot or a drive to the basket.
Mjomba is a sure handed shooter from the stripe and beyond. She has a desire and a killer instinct. Over a long period of time, she has proven what a valuable player she is. A reliable and a go-getter, who does not go wrong on most occasions.
“She has a good floor vision and good ball control. Her dribbling skills is next to none. She want to win at all times including during trainings. She is one player who gets hurt when her team loses,” Maina says of her star player.
Maina, who has guided the bankers to three premier league titles said, “She is also a role model to the upcoming players and she spends her time taking them through individual skills besides encouraging them when they are down.”
The long-serving tactician recognised the big role Mjomba played during the team’s title campaign last year, saying her contributions in crucial games doesn’t go unnoticed and her mindset and zeal is encouraging.
Mjomba singles out KPA as the toughest threat locally, saying: “Out there, all the teams we match up against are tough because of how well they prepare.”
Samba was born on August 30, 1985 in Nairobi to Elias Mwakama Mjomba and Rachel Katty Mjomba. She is a third born in a family of seven with her four sisters being Wabosha, Janet, Bibi, Agnes and one brother Joshua.
“For the longest time, I have been the one who has been passionate about sports. My sister Agnes and brother Joshua were very good swimmers but found passion in music,” said the 5’7 guard.
Her parents moved to Mombasa in 1991, where she started her schooling at Mombasa Primary from nursery level to standard 3. She then moved to St. Augustine’s Primary for her Standard 4&5 before moving back to Nairobi to join St. Georges from Standard six.
She finished Primary in 1991 and went to Moi Nairobi Girls High School in 2000. This is where where Mjomba ventured into sports— first taking up soccer and volleyball before eventually settling for basketball where she blossomed.
As a young girl growing up in an estate along Dennis Pritt Road, Mjomba was in love with soccer and spend most of her time engaging boys of her age in the number one sport that her mum loathed but could not persuade her to drop.
“Being a girl and playing soccer with boys in the estate and primary school got me into a lot of trouble with my mum because she didn’t really like it. But today, she is my number one fan,” she said, adding she turned her back to soccer while in Form One.
“We were only four players in Form One who played soccer as the rest of the team were in Form Four. But when they all graduated, we didn’t have the numbers for a football team so I was called to join the basketball while in Form Two,” she reflects.
Besides soccer, Mjomba also performed well in volleyball and was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) during the Kenya Secondary School Sports Association (KSSSA) Nairobi games.
But she abandoned this as well while in Form Three because of the tight kits, which she found very small and revealing at that time. Then, Western Province teams, Mukumu and Lugulu Girls, dominated the sport at the national level.
After completing high school, Mjomba knew the game she wanted to play and she settled on basketball. Nairobi Pentecostal Church was her first team and she was guided by Stanbic Bank coach Radhi Ndalu.
Between 2004-2005, she crossed the border to Kampala, Uganda and turned out for Lady Bucks while a student at Vienna College, Namugongo.
She was a team-mate to one of the country’s great point guard Flavio Okacho. She joined United States International University-Africa in 2006-2010 and was a key player in the institutions effort to build a formidable team. After graduating, her love for the game grew even stronger.
But the move that changed her completely came after she joined the high-riding self-supporting Eagle Wings. Under the tutelage of late Thomas Olumbo and Evelyne Kedogo, Mjomba hit the ground running.
She won two league titles with the team in 2011 and 2012 and notched a high in 2013 when the team became the first Kenyan club to bag a bronze medal in the Fiba women’s Africa Club Championships in Meknes, Morocco.
“I think Mjomba was at her peak during her days as an Eagle Wings’ player,” Kedogo recalls. “She got her first national team call up, won her first national league championship, won her first zonal event and became number three in Africa at this club.”
She went on: “She also got her first MVP honours while playing for us. Throughout her time with the team, she complimented other players very well.”
In 2014 she moved to Equity Bank and the team started their journey to stardom when they joined the Nairobi Basketball Association (NBA) provisional league. They won the title unbeaten and gained promotion to the Premier League.
Mjomba has five premier league titles. Two with Eagle Wings in 2011 and 2012 before improving that tally by bagging three more with Equity Bank (2016, 2018 and 2019). She has two runner up medals with USIU-Flames (2007) and Equity Bank (2017).
She has been to 18 Fiba Africa Championships both at club and national level. She has won Zone Five Club event six times—four with Eagle Wings (2010-2013), twice with Equity Bank (2017 and 2018) and finished third in 2008 with with USIU Flames.
Mjomba has featured in the prestigious Fiba Africa women’s Club Championships four times—twice with Eagle Wings in Ivory Coast (2012), Morocco (2013), KPA in 2016 (Mozambique) and Equity Bank in 2018 (Angola).
Mjomba joined the national team in 2007, debuting in the Women Afro-Basket in Dakar and has been a regular in the side since. Kenya finished last in that event. She was in the 10-man team that went back to Senegal last year in the last international outing.
Her other national duties came in 2011 in Maputo, Mozambique during the All Africa Games. She missed out in the 2007 Pan Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria because of school commitments.
Her achievements includes premier league MVP award in 2011 with Eagle Wings with another one following in 2014 when she guided Equity Bank to the Nairobi Basketball Association (NBA) provincial league.
She scooped both the top scorers and top three-point scorer award in that unbeaten NBA feat. In 2018, she was again named the top scorer in the 3-on-3 Nairobi women’s circuit.
From high school to club level, Mjomba has played under more than 10 coaches amongst them some of the best like late Olumbo and Kedogo (Eagle Wings), Oluoch and David Maina (Equity Bank).
Kamau and Oluoch handled her in the invincible Nairobi Inter cities teams that dominated the regional show while, Anthony Ojukwu, Cliff Owuor and Ronny Owino shaped her skills at the national level.
“Mjomba is one of the prolific scorers we have had in our league. She is very clinical in her moves and decisions. She is a veteran who has grown with the game, a leader and very instrumental player who can fit in every coach’s plan,” said KPA’s Ojukwu.
When she finally retires from active playing, Mjomba has her minds set on trying her hands in coaching. She has already called the shots in the NBA league while standing in for coach Oluoch in some league games.
“I have always wanted to coach. I started by helping my home team Saints of Athi River early in 2012 and I have managed to coach a few games. I thank the Women’s Commission for sponsoring me to a FIBA coaching course, where I guess influenced me a lot,” she said.
Oluoch observes: “As a player, I haven’t seen a guard that can much her skill set offensively. She is very poised and firmly in control of her team’s offence. A true leader on and off the court.”
“Mjomba has coaching ambitions, which I have noticed and I have been trying to help wherever I can. She has helped handle Raila Educational Centre and Kenya Methodist University (KEMU) teams. She will make a good coach,” noted Oluoch who tried in vain to recruit her to Sprite Storms.
Basketball has taken Mjomba, a senior relationship officer at Equity Bank to tournaments in Angola, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Morocco, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
In all the outings both at club and national team level, she has used vest number 7. “It’s my lucky number. Seven is the number of completeness and perfection. And on the 7th Day God rested because he knew he created me," she quipped.
BIOGRAPHY
Names: Betty Samba Mjomba (MJ)
DOB: 30 August 1985
Sport : Basketball
Position :Guard
Height: 5'7"
Employer: Equity Bank Kenya Ltd-Senior Relationship Officer
Interests: Reading motivational books, watching soccer, dancing, listening to music (Neo Soul/Afro-beat/old school/rhumba),travelling.
Personal Philosophy:Developing strong relationships is the foundation of everything. Everywhere you go, go with your heart.
Favourite bible verse:Joshua 1:9.
Favourite TV shows -My wife and Kids and Stand Up comedies-Kevin Hart.
Movies-Madam C J Walker
Favourite Books:Purpose Driven Life-Rick Warren