Naema Tandao 
Lennick Wanyonyi
Kenya’s National team, Harambee Stars was led to a fantastic victory of 3-1 by the birthday boy, Michael Olunga who is also the captain by securing a hattrick against the strong squad of Zimbabwe. It was the 30th birthday of the man of the match who saw the trophy at stake which pushed him and the squad to take the victory.
Zimbabwe was in the lead barely 4 minutes after the start of the game as Joseph Okumu made a mistake by driving an own goal due to a cross from Johnstone Omurwa inside the penalty box with an attempt to clear the ball.
Towards the end of the first half, Harambee Stars did the hard way with Michael Olunga equalizing the match ending the first half 1-1. During the second half, Patrick Matasi saved two of the Zimbabwean goal denying them a chance to be in front of the Stars. Harambee Stars’ midfield seemed to be broken as the Southern Africa squad seemed to be passing by them with ease, but on sensing the danger at stake, coach Firat substituted Chrispine Erambo with Kenneth Muguna in an attempt to strengthen the midfield.
In the second half, Harambee Stars started with vigor with a blow to Zimbabwe as Teenage Hadebe received a red card due to a physical confrontation giving Stars an advantage. The advantage came with a strong pass from Rooney Onyango though it was punched by Bernard Donovan and it fell on Olunga’s path making it 2-1.
A swift counterattack saw Kenya fail to score but Olunga received the ball just outside the box and fired home an unstoppable shot to complete his hat-trick and take his tally in national team colours to 29 goals from 58 games.
Kenya will be preparing for the June tournament which is for World Cup qualifiers and they have what it takes to qualify under the management of coach Engin Firat.
