Africa-Press – Tanzania. OVER the past decade, football in East Africa has taken two very different paths. While Tanzania has treated its domestic league as a serious business and cultural product, Kenya has largely remained stuck in cycles of mismanagement, short-term thinking, and wasted potential.
The result is clear for anyone paying attention: the Tanzanian Premier League has pulled ahead decisively.
This is not an attack on Kenyan football, nor blind praise of Tanzania. It is a necessary, uncomfortable conversation about why one league is growing exponentially while the other continues to stagnate despite having talent, population, and passion on its side.
If football success starts anywhere, it starts with money and more importantly, how that money is managed.
Tanzania made a conscious decision to commercialize its league. Long-term broadcast deals, credible sponsors, and consistent corporate backing have transformed the league into a financially stable ecosystem. Clubs can plan seasons properly, honor contracts, and invest in performance rather than survival.
Giants Simba SC and Young Africans are no longer just football clubs; they are brands. Their commercial strength lifts the entire league’s profile and forces other clubs to raise their standards.
Kenya, by contrast, has treated football financing like a gamble. Short-term sponsorships, broken broadcast agreements, unpaid players, and club bailouts have become normalised. A league where players go months without pay cannot be competitive no matter how talented the players are.
Tanzania understands one simple truth: fans are the product.
Matchdays in Tanzania feel important. Stadiums are alive, derbies feel national, and clubs actively market themselves to supporters. The Simba–Yanga rivalry is not just football, it is identity, pride, and culture. Television coverage amplifies this, turning local football into mustwatch content.
In Kenya, the opposite has happened. Local football has been poorly sold to its own people. Empty stadiums, weak promotion, and little storytelling have pushed fans away. Kenyan supporters love football but the league has failed to make itself lovable.
Continental football does not lie.
Tanzanian clubs show up in CAF competitions expecting to compete, not just participate. Deep runs by Simba and Yanga have changed how Tanzanian football is perceived across Africa. These performances send a message: the league produces quality teams capable of surviving elite pressure.
Kenyan clubs, unfortunately, often enter CAF competitions unprepared financially, tactically, and administratively. Early exits have become routine, reinforcing the narrative that the league is behind its regional peers.
Success in Africa is not accidental. It reflects the strength of domestic competition back home.
Tanzania has benefited from relative administrative stability. While not perfect, its league management has prioritised order, professionalism, and continuity. Fixtures are respected, commercial partners feel secure, and clubs operate within clearer structures.
Kenyan football has spent years fighting itself. Power struggles, court cases, suspensions, and leadership wrangles have drained the league of momentum. Investors avoid chaos, and Kenyan football has offered plenty of reasons to stay away.
When players vote with their feet, you should pay attention.
An increasing number of Kenyan footballers now see Tanzania as a step forward, not sideways. Better salaries, stronger competition, professional environments, and continental exposure make the choice easy.
This should be deeply worrying for Kenyan football stakeholders. A domestic league that cannot retain its best talent is quietly admitting failure.
What Kenya Can Learn from Tanzania
The success of the Tanzanian league did not happen overnight. It is the result of deliberate planning, commercial vision, fan engagement, and administrative discipline. Kenya can still recover, but it must be willing to learn.
Key lessons include: Prioritizing strong broadcast and sponsorship partnerships, Improving governance and reducing internal conflicts, Investing in fan experience and league branding, Supporting clubs to become financially independent and Treating football as an industry, not a side project.
Tanzania’s football rise is not luck. It is the result of intent, planning, and respect for the game as an industry.
Kenya still has raw materials Tanzania does not, population size, talent pool, and historical influence. But potential means nothing without structure. Until Kenyan football fixes governance, commits to commercialization, and reconnects with fans, the gap will only grow wider.
The Tanzanian Premier League is not perfect but it is moving forward. Kenyan football must now decide: reform boldly, or remain a cautionary tale of wasted potential.
