 Yes, and welcome back with Y254, the touchline barado kumu here, and our next set of guests is BMX riders, a group of BMX riders who are known as Ninjas Clan. We're here to talk about them, remember that this is an Olympic sport, Kenya has never been to the Olympics, especially in this particular discipline, but of course the group here might be the pioneer group that might be taking Kenya to their first ever Olympic in this particular sport. Welcome on set to have Joel Onyango on my immediate right, and of course Samuel Bogua on my father's left. Kennedy. Kennedy Kamal, that's on the left, father left, then of course Samuel Bogua and the man in the mavin, easily I can identify that. And that's Benjamin Brachal and of course Joel, Santeni Sana, Ninjas Clan, right? So when did you form this particular club and what informed your decision to pick on BMX? I mean, we've all been riders for a very long time, we've all been riders ever since childhood, but we came together around 2010, so we've been around for a decade or so. Our interest of learning new tricks, riding bikes together has kept us going throughout the years. The adrenaline, everything that comes together perfectly. And adrenaline, Rachal is like some sort of highness, right? Yes, some sort of highness, excitement, a mix of very, very, very different emotions. Sometimes you might feel like you can even listen to the air as it passes, you just mute the whole world, you're listening to how your heart is beating when you're in the moment, so it's like a pause. It's a mix of different emotions that you always end up chasing because it's addictive. When was the day that you picked it up and you felt like this is it? Okay, I rode my bike from, I was a kid, but I started BMX from 2020, during the COVID pandemic. And from there, I found the adrenaline was different, so I felt like other sports like football, basketball, they were not doing it for me. So I picked up the bike and I've never looked back. Kennedy, was BMX the first slavo you had, you were in some other sports before? I've always preferred cycling to other sports, to conventional sports, like Sama said. But around 2019, I figured I'd just buy a BMX just to cruise around, just run errands, but that was the beginning of it all for me because from then, I learned about the ninjas clan, that's when I joined the group, and then the rest is history from there. So how it involves stunts and your main goal is to get to the Olympics? Hopefully. How has the journey begun? The journey is somewhat challenging, but we're managing. As of right now, our immediate goal is to create awareness, let the people know that the sport is here, the sport is here to stay actually. And if we be the first pioneers to bring it to the mainstream, well and good, we've taken measures, we're currently underway and registering our sport. And hopefully, we do more exhibitions just to create a mass appeal and to popularize it amongst the youth because kids already know what it is. So it's just a matter of you old folks catching on. But you know it's a different form of riding, normal from what you expect from what you see. So when you talk about getting in maybe younger people, you have to do something that relates to them, maybe they just see this as a bike, but now what do you do to bring them along? So normally we have events and what brings us together, music is a universal language. So the music that we listen to, most of the time also BMX is an extension of hip-hop as well. So if you are hip-hop fan already, you will find that this is easy for you, you can easily relate with us guys. There's people who listen to rock music because as you can see Joel is very tall, I'm very tall and our bikes, our frames, all of them are not so big. Ya, that's why I'm getting that. So you can see it's sort of like a rebellious act for a tall person to be handling or mishandling sometimes as people tell us these small bikes. And that's all about it. As music brings us together, so we hold exhibitions, we partner with several people like Skateboarding Society of Kenya, sometimes we do exhibitions with them. We bring music that brings us together and that's how we get to meet other people as well. Asamu, how important is it to understand the beginning of the origin of BMX freestyle riding with music and how important is that? How does it fuse with the culture? BMX with music is like, it just flows because when you ride in the bike and listen to your music, the feeling is different. The bikes, it gets you there. If I can add to what Sam is saying, BMX right now currently, I feel like it's a mixture or a combination of sports and art. A wise man, we all know, maybe you don't know him, but a wise man said, he coined his own phrase, it says mix of sports and art, so he called it SPART. SPART, right? A wise man is Anthony from the SSK Skateboarding Society of Kenya. So it's a perfect blend where we try to fuse sports and urban culture together to bring it to the limelight, to popularize it with the youth. By extension, we just bring entertainment along to mix the two, which is so easy because now it's easy to put out the music, just with speakers blaring and you doing your thing, then people come in and asking what's happening here. That should be easy, right? Yeah, it's just like when you listen to some sounds and you dance, like how people dance to gangaton, ama piano. With your bike, it's the same thing, or hip hop. Yeah, it's the same thing, you just express yourself. When you look at an obstacle, for example in Kenya, we have so many potholes. People look at them as a disgrace to the country, but as we look at them as sports, we call them, this is a sport. This is somewhere I can do something like, I want to jump over it. I want to jump over it, that's my expression. That's my way of looking at it differently. That's my way of looking at stairs as, oh, what if I could jump over it? What if I could jump over all these stairs? What can I do over all these things? And that's just expressing yourself with your bike. So it's all art. It's all art. Poetry, emotion. Poetry, emotion. And of course Rachan is mentioning maybe what entails BMX freestyle, right? Maybe you can add? This is more like a personal expression of your creativity as an individual because as we are, everyone has their own individual style of riding. There's a specific way to ride. There's a specific Racha ride. There's a way that I ride. So it's more like an expression of each and every person's creativity. Of course. So going over what we are seeing right now, over these ketramps, is that one of the many stamps? Yeah, exactly. What does it involve? So what you're seeing on your screens right now is what we usually practice. It's called Changiliya Skatepark which is open to the public as well. That's in Kangemi? That's in Kangemi. Yes. Yes. Lorecho Kangemi around that area. But if you look at it on Google Maps, you can search up Tum Changiliyam Toto. Yeah, because it's usually... It's a famous children's home. Yeah, exactly. It's usually attached to the children's home there. And the only ones who have it. Yeah. Currently that's the biggest skatepark in Eastern Central Africa. We have it in Kenya. And we are fortunate enough. So we get to practice there and we get to share our skill there. Once you get there, we can train you. We get together, have meetups there, train ourselves, expand on the culture basically. And it's a good place to mentor other people upcoming, you see. Like you've said, it's a children's home. So that's one of the initiatives they've taken is to induct it in the school curriculum. It not only builds them physically. It also keeps them aware and sharp when it comes to decision making skills through the spotting activity that's involved. So soon you'll see ninjas in schools, you know. We're trying to induct that into the school system as well. Inject new life and a new perspective of seeing things. Yeah, ninjas is synonymous with the movies from Asia, right? Yeah, exactly. In this case, what do you do with the bikes? I mean, ninjas, the name was coined from, you know, we have different professions. And the only time we could get to ride was at night. So the ninjas clan, we usually rode at night. And, you know... But it's a sleep. I mean, when you're going home, we're coming out. So people could actually see us and be like, Naniwa mpita? Niniwa fanyika? I said, mawani ninja we are. So that's how the name coined. And you all came from the same neighborhood? Well, we have representation all over. Maybe our cha can speak upon that. Yeah, just as you said. We have guys from Dusty South Crew. Let's go. And also how they express themselves here. Very different. We have guys from Dawn Home. We have guys from Pangani, KU, Rueru. Some guys even from Mombasa. Big up. Kisumu. Kisumu as well. Eldoret and Nakuru. So every town, if we consider biking as a brotherhood, every time we ride our bikes and you see another person with a bike, there's always that respect that comes naturally. Even if you don't say hi to them, we just respect them by virtue of them being on top of a bike. So the brotherhood is very big and that's why we are able to meet with a person for the first time maybe in Nakuru. This year we had guys come from Uganda, all the way from Uganda. We are planning to go to Tanzania too just to meet with other guys who ride bikes. Yes. And of course maybe somebody can answer this and anyone else can take it too, add one or two of his view. With the sport being in the Olympics, what kind of opportunity does it present to the Kenya youth? Okay, as of now, I think there is one sport for an African rider in the Olympics for the freestyle BMX but we want in the future to have more sports because we want to have more people ride at the Olympics from Africa. The skill level has to rise. The skill level has to rise, the exposure. And also get more people riding bikes. How do you get more people riding bikes? You guys are ninjas. They can't come through like ninjas again because you open the way, right? So what we do is we normally encourage people if you are in a certain area and you know someone who rides, link up with them from time to time, you can do tricks or whatever and then if there is like the overall meet and greets that we have, then you guys can all come together. So you meeting up with someone in a certain area and then you meet up with other guys like that. That also spreads the word about the sport as well. So you can add on all the opportunities that you just presented to the youth being an Olympic sport? For one, I don't think there is any other Olympic sport apart from BMX, B-boying and skateboarding. And B-boying is going dead with this year now. Part of really who we are. Like I was saying, I don't think there is any sport that you may be judged upon creativity and personal style apart of those that I've mentioned. So for one, you can already see the aspect of creativity that is heavily involved or deep rooted in what we do. Apart from creativity, there's also the job opportunities that will come up exactly. And besides that, I feel like if we are able to nurture these talents, we're going to be able to avoid or rather be part of the community in that people have something to do, have something to associate. It can give you a sense of identity. We will be able to offer mentorship, program shapes through the opportunities that a biker knows that gives us from time to time in there. So yeah, it's a promising sport in the Olympics and we look forward to bring it to the general public and we're ready to take it to the next level. Yeah, and the search for the identity is all that maybe propels people to even do what I just said, rebellious stuff like picking on a bike or hip beginning in the park and all that. But now, how do you keep up the progression of this sport let's say in terms of bike models and all the changes that come? That's a very good question because with the internet, we're able to see what's happening in the community elsewhere in the parts of the world. And like Ken said, coming together, he may have a different bike model than I do and I'll ask him where he got it. That networking between friends, that comorality. It really helps in keeping up with the sport. Racha? Yes, also just to take you guys back, I feel another opportunity that BMX being in the Olympics presents is just being heroes. We need heroes that people can look up to just to go through life because life is very hard. We get so happy when we're riding bikes and you do something where you express yourself and then a kid is running after you. We've had instances where a child was just running around the estate, they go grab their bikes, they follow us wherever we're going and that shows you that they just need the inspiration to keep going. So it presents also an opportunity to, if one day they'll hear we are Olympians, we call ourselves Olympians, they have something that they can look forward to even in this life. They'd say, I want to be like Joel, I want to do something like that. Just like Kevin Kiptoom, whatever he has done, or whatever he did, sorry, whatever he did, whatever he's accomplished is because he was looking up to some people who already set the pace before him. So I believe that if we go to the Olympics, we'd have a good chance to also just be heroes to the next generation. And when you say, in my mind I'm like, that's the dream of Ninja clan. Yeah, ultimately, ultimately. We know we'll open the doors for a lot of guys, but we're also very aware that whatever we do, we're just setting the pace for the next generation of the next kids who are going to even set the bar high. Yeah, and when what you're doing is attracting like attention from young people, kids, let's say, that brings happiness. How does that make you feel, because you make that person lighter? It's usually a feeling of joy because you imagine this child just saw you just, maybe like hop over a pothole or a bump or a bump into a pavement and you see the excitement on their faces and it kind of makes you feel like, wow, that's actually very interesting to that kid. So even you find that, just like Venza said, you find like even the kids also want to try what we do on their bikes. And as it's majorly about adrenaline and maybe when you're fit, right? Do you feel like you're pressured with time to meet your goals and your dreams? Yeah, there's a lot of pressure. You know there's a lot of pressure and currently we don't have opportunities where we can make money off of riding bikes. So there's a lot of pressure to just also stick to this practice and this discipline of striving to be better than you were last year because we also try to build up our skills but yo, the pockets are hurting. The pockets are crying. So that means that since you're the pioneer people, it means that you have to get this on the map and also make your ways of making money. Yes, because there's a lot of opportunities. Pats are very expensive. To get parts, they are very expensive locally. We don't have any shop at the moment that sells this stuff locally or in Africa. We have to ship them. We have to be taxed when they are here and it's a small part. But you know that part, you know making money from riding bikes. Yes. So it's a struggle to have a balance. Okay. Seeing other people doing these things. In your mind you're like, I'd like to do this thing and you must take on the struggles even if the parts are expensive. You just try your best to get them whatever it takes because it's the sport that you want. Ken has a phrase that usually tells us where you can start where you are. So a number of competitions, apart from going over the skate ramps, where else? Our sport is not only constricted to the skate park. We actually do street jams where we organise events where we just meet up as riders and ride to various destinations and locations and spots. So you can see us across the road riding. You can say hi to us. We're friends with people. Tell us to do a trick. You can come to your school because it's something we've been wanting to do to interact with the school system. I'm sure the CBC supports this. Exactly. It's a learning club. We're still experimenting here and there but definitely we can't go wrong with BMX. So as far as going on to a number of competitions that you have locally, who do you look out for in the continent, a country that maybe hasn't established BMX freestyle riders and you're also coping that calendar here? I feel like South Africa has a good scene. South Africa has a good scene. Nigeria as well. Path of Tanzania. East and Central Africa we have Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya. The scene is popping. North Africa we have a scene there. So it spread out differently across Africa and it's interesting to see it's gaining momentum at a quick pace. So the obstacles apart from expensive parts of the bike. Challenges you mean? Yes. The most common challenge to play any athlete would be injuries. Getting over that mentally first of all then recovering physically is always a challenge because the obstacle won't change. You'll go there, maybe you're staring down a ten foot trail, a stair rail. The stair rail will still be the same but mentally you have to overcome that fear. You have to get down the stair, you have to jump down it. You have to send it. You have to send it. It's just like a scene in a movie. To most guys out here they'll see us do something like that wow actually saw that on TV somewhere. So it's something that to them they can't fathom that it can actually be physically down. So when they see it it's like wow it's very amazing to them. So your mental strength is your safety rule number one? Yes. Right? How else do you make sure that... But we also save riders. When you say save riders what do you mean? You're pulling stands all over extreme sport. Yes, safety gear. We wear helmet, nipad, anko pad. Anything to keep us from not getting injured easily. Because the sport demands that you look for an obstacle and you conquer it. That's our daily life. When we look at an obstacle you look at how you're going to conquer it. We have spots that we have gone to for more than two years. Just try it, you go there and it beats you up. It beats you up. How long can you go? How long is the ramp? A skate park? Okay. How long is it? How many feet? Six feet? How can you go? He can clear it. You can jump like this height, the height of the bar from the floor. It depends on how the transfer is taking you. And the speed. And the technique of the rider what must be possessed. The rider must have skills like bike control. You need bike control. When in the air, you need the bike so you have to hold it and go down with it here and land it here in short. Those are physical aspects of it. Sting feet. It keeps us fit as you can tell. We are all sort of fit. Nice one. Anyone who wants to join, how can he find you the Ninja clan? I think the best way to join us would be via social media. Track us down on Instagram and YouTube. Ninjas underscore clan. You can shoot us a DM. Tell us where you are at. We will definitely respond to you guys. Next coming event? We are actually organizing an exhibition event which will be at Shangalia skate park. The dates are yet to be released. So once that's done, follow us on social media and you will keep up with whatever upcoming events. Yes indeed. Thank you so much Lachan and everybody, Samuel and Kennedy for gracing touchland today and wish you all the best. We the craziest one can pull a stunters. We end up this way. Yes we wind up. He's closest to the microphone. He's holding the microphone. Nice one. Yes, Kennedy. Stop it. Let it just like a light trick. We are here. Let's start where you are. You know. Send it. And the director is saying you do one of the stunts. It's called Willy. What's that? Yes. Thank you so much. Joel for gracing the interview. Thank you so much. We come back with the fund zone. I'll be joined by Teres Wajaki in a short while. This is the touch line. Don't go too far.