The CHAN gambit: Why Lewis Bandi will be key for Harambee Stars

In the burning heart of CHAN 2024, as sweat becomes ink and the pitch a parchment of dreams, one name begins to whisper through the blades of Kasarani’s grass — Lewis Bandi.

He is not the loudest voice in the camp. He does not demand the spotlight. But when the drums roll and the tempo tightens, his presence becomes impossible to ignore.

From Hamza to the continent

Born on December 1, 2002, in Nairobi’s Makadara, Bandi’s first stadium was a stretch of hardened soil in Hamza, where crooked goalposts and barefoot ambition became his early companions.

“We made our pitches,” he says. “Sometimes, we played barefoot. Football wasn’t just a game — it was escape.” The Makadara Junior League saw his earliest touches.

Then came Hakati FC, Jericho All Stars, and finally, the gates to greatness opened through AFC Leopards Youth, where his feet danced in the KPL U-20 tournament like a poet finding his rhythm.

At Eastleigh High, he balanced schoolwork with sports — and in Machakos, a basketball court taught him lift, timing, and spatial sense that still shape his runs down the flanks today.

CHAN: His audition before the continent

Now, Bandi is no longer the boy dribbling between kiosks in Makadara. He is a professional. He is a Kenyan international. And CHAN 2024 is his highest stage yet. “You don’t survive CHAN by flair alone,” says head coach Benni McCarthy. “You need players who can feel the pressure… and still make the right pass. Lewis is one of them.”

He made his senior debut for Leopards against KCB on January 17, 2021 — a day when the flame of possibility finally found fuel. But CHAN is different. Here, the ball feels heavier. Here, mistakes are punished with silence. And here, Bandi will be asked not to shine — but to hold firm.

The shape-shifter

A coach’s dream. A forward’s safety net. A tactician’s multi-tool. Left back, right back, midfield — Bandi flows between roles without resistance, like water in the hands of the right coach.

“The badge doesn’t care where you play,” he says. “It only cares that you fight.” Under Patrick Aussems, he became more than a prospect. He became a problem solver. And in Benni McCarthy’s CHAN blueprint, Bandi is a hinge — quiet but critical. “We need footballers who carry no ego — just execution,” McCarthy adds. “Lewis brings that balance. You don’t realise how good he is until you try to play without him.”

For the flag, for the blood

Every time he laces his boots, he does it for more than himself. He does it for Makadara. For Hamza. For the kids still chasing dreams barefoot past dusk. “I play for Makadara. For every kid in Hamza kicking bottles and dreaming,” he says. “I want them to know it’s possible.”

He knows CHAN will bruise. He knows it will test resolve. And he’s ready. Because for Lewis Bandi, pressure is not the enemy — it’s the reward.