EXCLUSIVE: New Football Drama ‘Kito’, Created by Tosh Gitonga, Premieres on Citizen TV in January

Kito, a new football drama series created by Tosh Gitonga, is set to premiere on Citizen TV in January, with exact dates yet to be confirmed. The series follows a talented young footballer pulled back into the game he loves and a life he thought he had escaped.

The official synopsis reads: After his mother’s tragic death forces his return to Nairobi, a gifted but jaded 17-year-old footballer must navigate a new life with his estranged uncle, an idealistic but struggling banker who runs a high-stakes, community-based football academy, as they confront fractured family ties and dangerous secrets.

“Kito was born out of a desire to tell a deeply human story, one that uses football not just as sport, but as language,” says Gitonga, who also serves as the series’ executive producer. “At its heart, this is a series about family, responsibility, power, and the quiet battles we inherit and choose to fight.”

What interested Gitonga most about Kito was not football itself, but what happens around it. “It was the relationships, the silences, the compromises, and the hope that still finds a way to exist within difficult circumstances,” he says. “Kito is ultimately a family drama, grounded in community and shaped by ambition, love and consequence.”

For head writer Mona Ombogo (Volume, Kash Money), who also co-created the series with Gitonga, Kito is a labour of love “that branches away from the norm.” “We see a lot of telenovelas on our screens these days, and I salute all of them. Kito branches away from that, as it is both long-form and drama rolled into one,” Ombogo says.

Ombogo is joined in the writers’ room by Joan Tecla (Ensulo) and Octavious Onyango (Volume). Winnie Adisa (Mo-Faya, This Is Life) serves as producer.

Like most recent Kenyan shows targeting the country’s growing youth audience, such as MTV Shuga Mashariki, Paa and Tuki, Kito stars a predominantly young cast, many of them “first-time actors fresh from high school,” according to the director Morrison Mwadulo (Kina, Jela 5-Star).

The cast includes Rogers Otieno (The Agency); Wangui Ndirangu (Salem); Sahara Mohammed (Pete); Tobit Tom (who had his 2025 breakthrough role in the Netflix series Mo-Faya); Vanessa Okeyo (Second Family); and newcomers Joan Kenduywa (Hollow), Prince Jude (Lulu), Isaac Juma, Anastasia Kirathe (Neema), Michael Sanchez Voiya, Ian Mumo, Marcus Ochieng, and Henriques Katema (Bobo).

You can find more shows currently airing or streaming in Kenya in our What to Watch in Kenya guide.

Watch the trailer for Kito below.

Kito will air every Friday and Saturday at 8:00PM EAT on Citizen TV, with episodes also available on YouTube via Co-operative Bank Kenya.

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