'Crime Does Not Pay!' Former Mathare Player Ted Rogers' Long Walk To Freedom- Part 1

NAIROBI, Kenya- Dwight Eisenhower, a former American army general who served as the 34th president of the United States once said, ‘If you want total security, go to prison. There you are fed, clothed and so on. The only thing lacking, is freedom’.

For Tedium Rogers, also known as Te or Teddy among his peers, freedom was not something that he thought he would ever get a taste of again after he was sentenced to death after a robbery gone wrong back in 2000.

The former Utalii FC and Mathare United FC attacking midfielder was released from the jaws of the Kamiti Maximum Prison in August after serving 19 years behind bars for the first and only crime he ever committed.

Since that fateful day when he was apprehended, Rogers has come out to a completely different world. The Nairobi he once loved and lived in is no more.

Two presidents later, the roads do not look the same as dual carriageways have been introduced, from only the wealthy own a backdated mobile phone to an era where it is almost impossible to survive without.

The bare and untouched land that stretched across the streets now filled with towering buildings and the game that he loved so much, has evolved beyond his expectations.

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After almost two decades of finding it, hard to accept prison life, finally adapting to it and learning to find ways to appreciate the life that he had in him, Rogers left for the outside world with one key teaching that he has committed to passing on to the youth, ‘Crime Does Not Pay!’

SportPesa News spent an afternoon with the former football player and got an exclusive interview that explains his captivating story from the start to date. The feature will be released in a three-part series, detailing every aspect of Rogers' tedious journey.

At first glance, one would not be able to fit the 43-year old in traditional black and white striped prison overalls behind closed bars, such a charismatic, bubbly and well-spoken man but walking half a mile in the shoes he has bravely worn for the last 19 years nearly impossible.

Born in 1976 in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate, Rogers was raised by both his parents and from as early as he can remember, his love for the beautiful game was uncontested.

“My love for football began so long ago. For as long as I can remember, football was my first love.

“I used to play every day religiously. Every Saturday, my mother would quarrel with me because she would tell me to read but all I would do is run outside to play,” Rogers reminisced during an interview with SportPesa News.

“The only dream I can remember hoping to achieve throughout the early years of my life was to become a professional footballer and feature in one of Europe’s top leagues. I was not going to stop until this came true,” he added.

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At a time where Kenyan football was slowly becoming a force to reckon with across the continent, Rogers never stopped trying and he played and rose through the ranks at Mathare Youth Soccer Academy, showing a great deal of promise.

“I played and went through all the youth stages from under 12, 15 and finally under 18 before I joined the senior team at Mathare.

“That’s when I moved to Mathare North for a while, to help me attend training easily.

 “When I broke into the junior teams, we played different divisions and that’s when I was spotted as an upcoming talent and brought back to the senior team,” the staunch Manchester United FC fan explained.

It is no secret that a majority of the boys who grow up playing football, dream of making it into the big leagues and for Rogers, the toughest had passed and all he needed was to maintain the same level of focus and consistency to achieve his cherished aspiration.

“Growing up, what I loved most other than playing football was going to the stadium to watch games. I would jump over the fence and run to somewhere I could see the players up close.

“The memories I had from football in my youth were pictures of all these players that I had stuck onto a book. I wonder where that book is and if anyone else ever enjoyed it, it is priceless,” a cheery Rogers explained.

After a highly competitive 1999 Kenyan Premier League campaign won by Tusker FC, something unexpected happened. Rogers suffered a heart-rending knee injury that ended up leaving him on the sidelines for months, needing surgery to repair it.

A torn meniscus in his right knee was his undoing and in an era where making a living from only football was seemingly impossible, the tide was just about to take a turn for the worse for the budding attacking midfielder.

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“Football was great back in my day but there were a lot of challenges. The biggest one was definitely financial struggles.

“Many of the players had other jobs aside from football due to lack of pay and that in itself is not how things should be. Nowadays I see players living off football as a career and it makes me happy to see how far the beautiful game has come,” the newly released Rogers offered.

The news of his injury and the duration he would be out of the only thing he had going for him in his life, brought a demoralizing sense of depression as Rogers had little to no idea what he was going to do with himself before the road to recovery.

Where would he get money for him and his family? His son Paul was seven years old and he could not let himself be a father that could not provide for his young family. The club could not afford to pay him a salary due to his injury and lengthy time off the pitch, putting him in a difficult situation.

“I was never into crime and how I ended up in it is a decision I will regret for the rest of my life. At the time, I was out of the game for a few months due to a knee injury after I tore my meniscus and underwent surgery.

“When I was sidelined, I automatically relegated to having no salary. I had no other means of getting money and it was as if the devil crept up and corrupted me,” he lamented.

In July of 2000, Rogers had had enough of the constant feeling of weakness and depression; it was at that point that his friends exploited the opportunity of getting him at his weakest and most vulnerable point and managed to convince him to do something that would negatively affect the rest of his life.

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“The day I got caught played in my head over and over for many years. My friends gave me the chance to make some quick cash and all we had to do was rob someone, I thought little of it at the time,” he began to explain.

Rogers and two of his friends decided to go to Kiambu, a small town within the Nairobi Metropolitan Region, away from their natural habitat to pull off a heist that would be enough to make quick cash to save them from the rut they were in.

Despite there never being a legitimate reason to commit a crime, for Rogers, his wife and child were the most important things in his life and if his first time offence was going to save them from the jaws of financial struggles then he was ready and willing to do whatever it took.

“I was not oblivious to the fact that many of the people from my neighborhood were involved in crime and it was a conscious decision to join them on that day.

“The main problem was that I was so greedy, only thinking about the returns and not sparing a thought to the fact that sometimes things like these go wrong and people get caught. That was my first mistake,” the 43-year old regretted.

A day that began like any other was already damned to have a wretched ending and they were none the wiser.

As they descended upon the shop that was the target of their crime, everything was going according to plan. They made their way inside and instilled fear to the occupants of the shop with their weapons, the robbery was going according to plan for the assailants.

No sooner had they began to retreat and attempt to make an escape than they realized not all they had planned for was going to save them from what they saw. A huge number of people from the area had mobilized themselves to stop Rogers and his gang from fleeing.

As soon as they made the conscious decision to ditch all they had stolen and run, the crowd got a hold of him and one other accomplice and began raining punches, kicks and hurling stones at the duo. The third managed to find an inch of space and made a run for it, leaving Rogers and his friend for dead.

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“Till today, I have no idea how I managed to stay alive. After being hit on the head countless times, I finally passed out.

“I can only assume it was the police who saved us from that near death experience because, the next thing I remember after being thoroughly beaten was waking up behind bars at the cop station,” he underscored.

With torn clothes, a bloody face and no shoes, Rogers recalls wondering whether he would be able to survive. Was he ever going to see his family again? Will they be lenient because he was a first time offender? Where was his friend who had convinced him to pull off the robbery?

Most importantly, the regret that clouded what was left of the little sanity in his head was unbearable. What started as a minor injury setback was now threatening a life completely without his first love.

Football would definitely go on. However, would he be able to live without the one thing that had kept him going and offered him hope for most his life?

“I was in the police station for three weeks. I needed time to recover and I received no medical attention. I guess they felt as though, I did not deserve it,” Rogers stated.

- The second part of this series will be published next week, keep it SportPesa News for more updates