•His engrossing narrative in the sport unfolds at the Mwanandondi Boxing Club in Kisauni, Mombasa where he and his friends would frequently visit to catch a glimpse of action while peeping through the windows.
•For Bakari and his friends, boxing was an assured way of disentangling themselves from the yolks of agonizing poverty.
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Two decades ago, Kenyan bantamweight pugilist Shaffi Hassan Bakari would never have envisioned himself flying the country's flag in a major global event.
He was still a naive boy frantically groping for recognition and fame in the rugged terrain of boxing.
Born on July 5, 1993, Bakari spent his formative years in Mombasa — the chief port of Kenya situated on a coralline island in a bay of the Indian Ocean.
Initially in love with the game of football that proved to be more popular in his neighbourhood, Bakari ended up in boxing in the most unexpected fashion.
His engrossing narrative in the sport unfolds at the Mwanandondi Boxing Club in Kisauni, Mombasa, where he and his friends would frequently visit to catch a glimpse of action while peeping through the windows.
“My interest in boxing began the moment I accompanied my friends to watch a training session in one of the gyms in my neighbourhood,” Bakari said.
At the coastal club, Bakari systematically acquired the fundamentals of the game under accomplished grassroots coach Lemmy 'Cobra' Katibi.
“I was only five years old and I remember going with my friends to the Kisauni gym to catch a glimpse of those training. My interest in the sport blossomed with time.”
For Bakari and his friends, boxing was an assured way of disentangling themselves from the yolks of agonising poverty.
“Kisauni has produced a significant number of good boxers who have made quite an impression at the national stage. Their success motivated youths in the area who preoccupied themselves with the sport in the hope they would make a living out of it in the future.”
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In 2002, he was barely a nine-year-old Class One pupil at Khadija Primary School in Mombasa’s sprawling Kisauni area, when he immersed himself fully in training under Coach Katibi.
It is surprising that when the average Kenyan child joins Class One aged five years, Bakari had to wait until he was nine. “I joined school late because my parents could not raise enough money to take me to school.”
The hardships posed by abject poverty propelled Bakari to unprecedented heights that turned out to be the only other escape route from his hostile environment.
“I was exposed to numerous challenges owing to our humble family background. I attended training barefooted and most of the time lacked transport to honour bouts.
“But all these problems made me even stronger and more determined.”
Bakari is quick to acknowledge the key role coach Katibi played in helping him mould his career. Katibi is sibling of former Kenya international Evans Ashira Oure.
“Coach Katibi kept encouraging me to take boxing seriously. He took me through lessons in punching and movement in the ring. Since I was still very young, I kept off weights in the gym. He didn't match me up with a sparring partner either but advised me to focus on shadow boxing.”
His patience and consistency in training ultimately paid off when he registered to compete in the National League after months of shadow boxing and sparring at the Kisauni gym.
“In 2009, Mombasa hosted the year's final leg of the Kenya National League, and I grabbed the opportunity to gauge my potential.”
His diminutive frame didn't serve much to hype his jerry-built ego as he brushed shoulders with comparatively stocky and gigantic colleagues.
Unperturbed, he pushed on while accumulating titles and honours on his way to stardom. And today, Bakari concedes he owes his successes in life to the sport he has come to adore so much.
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“Boxing has greatly enriched my life and helped me become my family’s breadwinner. As long as you love what you do and work hard towards your goal, you stand to achieve anything you desire. But it's important to put God first in everything.”
His childhood dream of escaping poverty through sports materialised when he was recruited by the National Police Service on the strength of his exploits in the boxing ring.
“I am happy that through boxing, I landed a job with the National Police Service at a young age.”
Months have turned into years, and today Bakari is assured of a seat on the Kenyan plane that will scale the skies to Birmingham after relentlessly punching furiously on the bag to claim his space.
He will be part of the star-studded Hit Squad quartet comprising Nick Okoth (lightweight), Elizabeth Andiego (light heavyweight) and Christine Ongare (cruiserweight).
The 28-year-old National Police Service officer couldn't have been more excited about his prospects of gracing the quadrennial global showpiece after being enlisted by coach Benjamin Musa to the lean boxing team.
With the Africa Zone 3 Boxing Championship gold medal already safely tucked away after a resplendent performance in Kinshasa, Congo last March, Bakari is now itching for his opponents' teeth in Birmingham.
He was part of the gallant squad that fired Kenya to a momentous medal haul at the regional tournament; including six gold, five silver and seven bronze medals.
“My performance in Kinshasa has boosted my confidence a great deal. But I'm aware I'll be flexing muscles with the world's best boxers, and the biggest mistake I would make now would be to sit back and relax,” he said.
His cautious approach notwithstanding, the soft-spoken but hard-hitting pugilist reckons he has sharpened his talons well enough to secure a podium finish.
“I'm determined to emulate my performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, where I made it to the round of 16. My goal is to make it to the medal bracket in Birmingham and if possible, stand tall and proud as the national anthem is sung in my honour,” Bakari said.
“Our coaches are doing a terrific job, sprucing us up in camp and I now feel well prepared for the task ahead,” Bakari said.
“The coaches are concentrating on each of the boxers and rectifying individual shortcomings."
“What's even more encouraging is the presence of sparring partners, who have been brought on board to push us to the desired heights. One of them is a southpaw and training with him helps us prepare for all kinds of opponents,” he added.
Other than the Africa Zone 3 Championship, Bakari reckons he accumulated invaluable lessons during his trip with the national team to Serbia for the World Boxing Championships held in October despite the team returning home empty-handed.
He also asked local boxing enthusiasts to cut the national team some flak following their dismal outing in Belgrade, saying the organisers shifted the goalposts without prior notice.
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“It would be misleading to say that we failed in Belgrade simply because we didn't bag a single medal. The reality is that we had prepared quite well for the event but we were disoriented by the drastic changes in the rules at the eleventh hour,” he said.
Bakari boasts a wealth of experience and unmatched expertise he has accumulated under the tutelage of Kenya's finest coaches including Benjamin Musa, David Munuhe, John Waweru and George "Foreman" Onyango.
Bakari says he draws a lot of inspiration from American Floyd Mayweather and Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko. Locally, Hit Squad captain Nick Okoth and Benson Gicharu have always been his heroes.
“I learned a lot from Nick during my stint with the Kenya Defence Forces boxing team after relocating to Nairobi from Mombasa.”
In 2011, Bakari earned his first call up to the national team for the junior Commonwealth Championship in the Isle of Man in England under current national senior Coach Musa Benjamin.
It was also the same year he was enlisted in the Kenya Defence Forces team. He would later join the National Police Service in 2015 as a constable.
Bakari later joined the National Team 'Hit Squad' where he has cemented his position to date. Bakari made his Commonwealth Games debut at the 2018 Gold Coast Games as a light-flyweight.
He then shifted to the flyweight division a year later in a bid to make the Olympic team. That was after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the light-flyweight (49kg) and lightweight (60kg) from Olympics weight program. His star was on the rise and in 2019, he almost bagged the continental title at the African Games in Rabat, Morocco.
Bakari became the first Kenyan to reach the final in boxing at the Africa Games since light flyweight Suleiman Bilali in 2007 Algiers. However, after outwitting Ethiopian Dawit Bekele 4-1 in their semi final contest, Bakari eventually settled for silver when he lost out in the flyweight finals.
The Kenyan was beaten on unanimous points decision by Mohammed Rajab Otukile of Botswana. Perhaps, he could have gone a notch higher if he hadn't sustained an injury. Head coach Musa Benjamin said Bakari nursed a left arm injury he picked in the quarter-final and it worsened in the semifinals.
Bakari has urged budding boxers to punch above their weight if they intend to leave an indelible mark on the global scene.
Away from the boxing ring and gym, Bakari likes whiling away at the swimming pool, spending quality time with family and sampling local delicacies.
“I love the dishes from the coast especially the mouth-watering delicacy of rice and potato soup,” says Bakari.
Bio Data
Name: Shaffi Bakari Hassan
Date of birth: 05/07/1993
Stance: Orthodox
Weight division: flyweight
Previous club: Kisauni Boxing Club
Current club: Chafua Chafua (Police Team)
Coaches: David Munuhe, John Waweru and George Onyango
Favorite sports: Football and boxing
Hobbies: watching movies and swimming
Career Highlights
•Clinched bronze at the Africa Championship Congo Brazzaville
•Represented Kenya at the AIBA World Boxing Championship in Hamburg, Germany in September 2017.
•All Africa Games flyweight silver medalist in Rabat Morocco in 2019
•Participated in the Indian Open in New Delhi 2018
•Participated in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia
•Kenya Open Champion 2019, and winner of 1st, 2nd and 3rd leg league champion.
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