Basketball in Africa

By Dann O'werre
NAIROBI Basketball Association (NBA) chairman Ronnie Owino has written to Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) asking them to include Emyba and Don Bosco in the expanded Division One. Emyba and Don Bosco battled it out in the NBA finals last November with the former emerging winners after staging a remarkable recovery that saw them come from behind to claim the best of five series on a 3-2 basis.
"The NBA runs a serious league that has over 30 teams and it is only fair that KBF grant us two slots for our champions and the runners up in the expanded league," said Owino, adding that he was sure of a positive response. KBF fixtures secretary Joseph Amoko announced earlier in the week that the lower tier will be expanded to accommodate 20 teams from 16 with the new format being divided into two conferences namely Eastern and Western.
Already two other teams -- Mount Kenya University (MKU) Thika and 4-Christ-- have bagged the two automatic tickets by finishing winners and runners up respectively in the Inter Provincial play-offs in Kisumu. Amoko also disclosed that Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have been dropped from the league after failing to honour five consecutive matches. The stakeholders also want KBF to increase the number of teams in the Premier League to 20 and introduce the conferences. This, they argue is the only way to cut on the number of matches and make the league end earlier than December.