NAIROBI, Kenya, June 7, 2026 – Mohammed Bajaber and Lawrence Okoth scored a brace apiece as Harambee Stars thrashed Lesotho 4-0 in their second international friendly at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday evening in Pretoria.
The two sides were locking horns for the second time in four days, following Thursday’s meeting at the same venue during which they ground out a 1-1 draw.
This time, Benni McCarthy’s side were aggressive and sought to put the visitors to the sword from the first whistle.
Bajaber made the most of a calamitous mistake at the back by the opponents, whose attempt at tiki taka football was snuffed out by Richard Odada who squared the ball for the Tanzanian-based forward to fire from close range in the ninth minute.
The former Nairobi City Stars forward was at it again in the 51st minute, showing great predatory instincts to get on the end of Zech Obiero’s low cross from the right to fire in the second.
McCarthy then made wholesale changes to the playing unit, bringing on — among them — Dutch-born goalkeeper Caleb Kramer, England-born Sydney Agina and Samuel-Henia Kamau, Finland-based Okoth and Amos Nondi,
They did take time to settle into the game but when they did, the Kenyans were back to their dominant self.
From the edge of the Lesotho box, Agina thread in a pass onto the path of Okoth who fired first time past Leluma Moeoka in goal, in the 83rd minute.
Deep in the Kenyan half, Bajaber put an overhead cross towards the Okoth who controlled the ball to direct it onto his right foot before firing a low shot into the bottom right corner for the fourth in the 87th minute.
The match saw McCarthy hand a debut call-up to another one of his foreign-born legion, England-based Deonysus Woodman who partnered Etoile du Sahel’s Alphonce Omija in the centre of the defence.
