It’s official. Gor Mahia are not taking part in a continental competition this season. It is painful.
It is heart shattering. It is numbing. What makes it even harder to bear the pain is that we the fans are going to pay a heavy price for the ineptness and chaotic management style of those we have charged with running the affairs of our beloved club.
We can write acres and acres of newspaper space. We can use barrels and barrels of expensive ink bemoaning what befell us.
However, the truth of the matter is that as long as we have the same thinking-allergic and lords of impunity lording it over all of us lesser mortals going by the name of the long-suffering fans it is just another day in office for the management.
Going into the last elections, there was a curious rule snaked in stating that for one to hold an elective position at Gor Mahia, they must have a degree certificate from a recognised institution of higher learning.
It was a requirement that drew a serious debate, more so because a section of the fans saw malice in the announcement. The rule, they argued, was brought into play specifically to bar Judith Nyangi, the immediate former secretary-general, from running for office.
I have no evidence that this was the case, but having been in this trade of journalism for close to three decades I have come to be a good adherent of the old adage that where there is smoke there is fire and I am not dismissing the allegations off-hand.
Those who supported this provision told us that it was in the best interest of the club and that having “well learned” individuals at the helm would be a great boon to the club’s fortunes.
Those opposed were of the view that leadership was a gift and that there are people who have led well and respectably even without having degrees.
Now, finally, the brown stuff has hit the fan when we have perhaps the most learned of club management in Africa. How this elite group of well read individuals could not read emails and act as ordered by Fifa remains a mystery.
In fact, some of Nyangi’s supporters have gone online reminding us how our “anointed” office bearers have let us down.
They might be having a point, I must give it to them. For how can you tell us that you are having people who can read the signs of the times in leadership yet the same group would score a spectacular failure on matters management?
Reading online, I have also seen a weird — but very plausible —allegation that the entire fiasco was stage managed. Here goes: “That the said players owed monies by the club were brought to us by some well-connected individuals.
The same individuals leaned heavily on the club management to let the deadline pass and the owed monies not paid. This way, they will end up sharing with the players the fines and penalties Gor Mahia will be forced to part with.”
Once again I have no proof of such allegations but from their past actions, I know for a fact that there is a cartel to whom Gor is a cash cow and they can use any means possible to fleece it. So it is not beyond them to come up with such a criminal enterprise just to make a fast coin.
My question to the fans still remains, when are we taking our club back from these cartels?
