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Mozzart Bet empowers ex-gangsters fighting crime in Kawangware through football
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Reading Time: 4min | Wed. 17.12.25. | 14:04
The club was formed in 2020 to keep the youth busy as well as connect them to job opportunities
For two years, Evans Odembo played a game of Russian roulette with his life, until he realised his close circle of friends was worryingly thinning by the day and that his luck was fast running out.
The no-nonsense criminal busters in Kawangware, particularly in the Congo area, had wiped out scores of Odembo's friends who habitually terrorised residents, while law enforcement netted others and sent them to jail.
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Outlawed acts of mob justice also played a significant role in the killing of gang members, who were intercepted by irate members of the community and brutally murdered, Odembo recounts.
Losing a gang member, a friend, or a peer, as a consequence of crime, had become a normal occurrence for Odembo.
Fundraising to defray burial costs and covering long distances, whether upcountry or to the cemetery, to lay a 'fallen soldier' to rest was a familiar routine.
As the clock kept ticking, Odembo knew all too well that he was living on borrowed time and that heeding the call to reform was the sole available chance to procure his freedom, given that he was a marked man.
In 2017-after several close shaves and the deaths of dozens of friends, among the other losses, Odembo finally saw the light and abandoned his lethal tools of trade and wayward ways.
He was subsequently rehabilitated before joining the National Youth Service (NYS), where he trained as a driver.
"I was deeply immersed in crime between 2015-2017. During those two years, I witnessed it all, including the loss of friends I had grown up with.
I lost count of the number of friends who were killed as a result of crime, while some are still serving lengthy jail terms. I reformed in 2017," Odembo told Mozzart Sport.
For Odembo, reforming, acquiring a skill and leaving crime behind was one thing; pulling his remaining friends out of it proved a completely different ball game.
Despite becoming a role model and doing his best to spread the gospel of reform in the slum area, young lives continued to perish.
The small gains he had made through talking to the youth were significantly undone by the coronavirus pandemic, which left more of his reform targets vulnerable to crime.
After crime skyrocketed to new heights, Odembo turned to a tried and tested method- football- and formed the Congo Reformed FC in a bid to keep the young men occupied.
Additionally, the community formed the Congo Reformed Group to reach as many as possible.
"The community continued losing young men despite the efforts put in to preach against the vice. Lack of job opportunities was identified as one of the factors leading the youth astray.
To address this, we formed Congo Reformed FC and Congo Reformed Group to give them a platform to showcase their abilities,” narrated Odembo.
What started as an afterthought has since turned out to be an important tool for fighting crime and job scarcity in Kawangware.
Asked about the success of the project, Odembo comfortably listed tens of former gangsters who had swapped crime for football and other productive activities.
While the football club keeps the youth busy, the other entity provides them with an opportunity to eke out a living through car washing, urban farming, and event planning and coordination.
“Our football team is largely made up of former gangsters. We also have the Congo Reformed Group, which is a platform that gives reformed individuals a chance to make an honest living.
We are impressed with the growing number of youth who have left crime for football and other legal means of survival,” remarked Odembo.
To boost his efforts aimed at using football to eradicate crime, gaming giant Mozzart Bet visited Congo Reformed FC and donated sporting uniforms and footballs.
The team received more than 20 full kits and two footballs courtesy of the firm’s initiative dubbed New Jerseys for New Champions.
“We are grateful to Mozzart Bet for the donation. This means a lot to the team and the community. It will go a long way in attracting more youth to disengage from crime.
We are targeting more youth, especially during the Christmas holiday,” added Odembo.
The club primarily plays tournaments and friendly matches within the Kawangware area.
