Newly elected Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja has offered reprieve for the former Kenyan soccer giants AFC Leopards who are facing hard times in the Kenya Premier League (KPL)
Ingwe as they are popularly known currently lie on Position 12 on the Log with 31 Points, 21 a drift of run-away leaders and eternal foes Gor Mahia.
But they can take solace in their quest to participate in Continental Soccer after they qualified for the KPL GOTv Shield Cup with a 1-0 win over Vihiga United at Nakuru’s Afraha Stadium yesterday and they will face-off against Kariobangi Sharks who easily dispatched Sony Sugar 2-0 at the same venue.
Early this year, they were ordered by KPL to pay a fine of Sh177, 000 following crowd trouble that marred match in Mumias.
Politics and Kenyan soccer is not a ‘new’ union but has existed for ages with some using the sporting platform to score political goals and others using the political system to appear to remain relevant and be seen as a ‘man of the people’.
Read:Kenyan Betting Firm BETIKA To Relay Online Soccer Commentary
Throughout the sands of time in Kenyan football history, the Gor Mahia versus AFC Leopards fixture has defined the complexity, passion and sometimes the tragedy that is the local version of the game.
While Leopards has not won the League since 1998, Gor has won it three times in a row over the last 4 years and is on course and sitting pretty to win the 2017 Honors.
Former AFC Chairman Alfred Sambu used his Club popularity to win the Webuye Constituency Parliamentary seat as did the deceased Gor Patron Job Omino (Kisumu Town)
If ‘elected’ by the ‘Luhya Nation’ Sakaja must go to the ground and listen to the grievances of the team, fans and management and help come up with viable long-term solutions towards the fast fading soccer ‘power-house’
It will not a walk in the park though for Sakaja, who won Nairobi Senatorial seat on Jubilee Ticket, as other aspirants too have thrown their hats in the ring for the Patronage of Ingwe.
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