The Harambee Stars’ all-time leading scorer debate. Who tops?

Harambee Stars captain bagged a hat trick on his 30^th birthday as Kenya beat Malawi in a friendly clash on 26^th March 2024 in Malawi.

The goals saw Olunga take his total tally for the national team to 29 goals in 58 games to spark a debate on how many goals he needed to become the all-time leading scorer for the national team.

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In a few engagements on X (formerly Twitter), there seems to be no one who knows exactly the number of goals the leading goal scorer for the nation has. Some say it is former captain Dennis Oliech who has bagged 34, others having William ‘Chege’ Ouma as the man topping their list even though there are claims that a chunk of his goals were not recorded.

Getting proper statistics for players who played earlier in the 60’s to the ’80s and even in the earlier ’90s has proved to be an enormous task but with the help of statistician Emmanuel Mketu, we managed to come up with a list of players who have scored more goals for Stars in competitive games. The list excludes friendly games organized by the Federations over the years.

Topping the list is Oliech who bagged 21 goals in competitive games for the national teams. The former Auxerre and AC Ajaccio striker had 15 goals in World Cup Qualifiers, 1 in the African of Nations competition and 5 in African Cup of Nation Qualifiers.

Second in the list is Divock Origi’s father, Mike Okoth Origi, who has 16 goals in the competitive games. Okoth had 5 goals in the World Cup Qualifiers, none in the Africa Cup of Nations, and 11 in the African Cup of Nation Qualifiers.

Olunga comes third in the list having 7 goals in the World Cup Qualifiers, 2 in the Africa Cup of Nations competitions and four in the AFCON Qualifiers.

The Top 7 Best Scorers in Competitive Games for Harambee Stars

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