Turmoil at Muhoroni Youth as key players ask to leave club

Several Muhoroni Youth players have asked for their contract with the club to be terminated citing mistreatment.

At the same time Muhoroni Youth have formally suspended their star striker Wycliffe Ochomo indefinitely for “breach of contract”.

The aggrieved players, led by Ochomo, have lodged a formal complaint both with the Kenyan Premier League and the Kenya Footballers’ Welfare Association (Kefwa) over mistreatment by the club’s top brass.

According to Kefwa chairman Innocent Mutiso, the players have voiced various grievances including incessant threats from the club management, physical intimidation and delayed salary payments.

Mutiso said his office was exploring available conflict-resolution options to deal with the complaints.

“Three players claimed that they were assaulted. They were threatened after asking for their salaries which have been delayed for months,” Mutiso told Daily Nation Sport.

The issue first came up on September 1 when a group of 20 players accompanied by their team doctor and team manager travelled to Nairobi to seek help from the Kenyan Premier League.

KPL Security Manager GMT Ottieno said that the players were mistreated by their club chairman.

“This is an in-house matter and we have advised the players to direct their complaints to the club officials and iron out their differences.” Ottieno said at the time.

Contacted, Muhoroni Youth chairman Moses Adagala refuted reports that the players had asked to be released from the club adding that Ochomo had been suspended indefinitely for “being a bad influence” to the players.

“Ochomo has been away from duty for a while now and he never bothered to give anyone any explanation. In fact, he missed our previous match against Tusker. The team’s disciplinary committee met yesterday (Wednesday) and agreed that he be suspended until further notice,” he said.

Meanwhile, Football Kenya Federation have stated that they are handicapped in dealing with this matter as none of the players has approached the body with a formal complaint.

“We are also just hearing those reports from the media and we are waiting to receive an official complain either from Kefwa or from the individual players,” FKF media liaison officer Barry Otieno said on Thursday.

“We however understand that the players could be intimidated so we are doing our own private investigations and we shall lay out our recommendations in good time.”