Kenyans have been heaping praise on 30-year-old Harambee Stars skipper Michael Olunga for his hat-trick heroics that led to Kenya lifting her first trophy in over six years, after beating Zimbabwe 3-1 to clinch the Four Nations Tournament title.
With this type of achievement, the Al Duhail forward goes down in history as the fourth Kenyan to achieve this feat.
Olunga’s predecessors include: Mike Okoth ,Sammy Okoth and Abdulrahman Baraza who scored hat-tricks the helped Kenya win at least a match.
Three years after becoming an independent nation, Kenya got a perfect Jamhuri Day celebration present from the then AFC Leopards midfielder Abdulrahman Baraza, who is the first person to score a hat-trick at an international assignment. He helped Kenya beat Sudan 3-2 in a friendly played on 12th December 1966.
Kenya had to wait for three more decades for a similar occurrence. In 1997, Kenya beat Burkina Faso 4-3 in the first leg of the 1998 World Cup Qualifiers fixture played in Nairobi, where Mike Okoth Origi, father to Belgium’s and Nottingham Forest’s forward Divock Origi, scored three goals.
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However, Kenya’s triumph was short-lived after Burkina Faso won 4-2 in the return fixture, thereby winning 7-6 on aggregate.
A year later, another Kenyan, Sammy Okoth, etched his name in the annals of the country’s history after scoring a hat-trick in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers match against Djibouti, where Kenya won 9-1 in Nairobi on August 15, 1998.
Okoth managed to score a brace within the first six minutes of the match, later adding his third in the 65th minute.
Twenty-five years later, Olunga’s hat-trick helped Kenya break a trophy dry spell, bringing joy to the Kenyan population.