Tusker kick journalists out of training session

Tusker Football Club media liaison officer Diana Yonah. PHOTO | COURTESY |

What you need to know:

  • Perhaps driven by the desire to conceal their tactics as they prepare to launch their title defence this weekend, Tusker Football Club’s management on Monday took a rather absurd and overzealous decision to kick the Daily Nation crew out of their training base at the Railways club in Nairobi.
  • The brewers renew their rivalry with giants Gor Mahia in Sunday’s Dstv Super Cup clash –a curtain raiser to the riveting SportPesa Premier League that kicks off next weekend.
  • Sadly, though, it’s not their preparation for the weekend clash that caught interest but the manner in which Daily Nation photographer Chris Omollo was kicked out of their training as he went about his business on Monday.

Perhaps driven by the desire to conceal their tactics as they prepare to launch their title defence this weekend, Tusker Football Club’s management on Monday took a rather absurd and overzealous decision to kick the Daily Nation crew out of their training base at the Railways club in Nairobi.

The brewers renew their rivalry with giants Gor Mahia in Sunday’s Dstv Super Cup clash –a curtain raiser to the riveting SportPesa Premier League that kicks off next weekend.

Sadly, though, it’s not their preparation for the weekend clash that caught interest but the manner in which Daily Nation photographer Chris Omollo was kicked out of their training as he went about his business on Monday.

The team’s media liaison officer Diana Yonah gave Omollo his marching orders insisting that he could not take photographs of the training as the Daily Nation “had not followed the laid down protocol.”

This despite the fact that the Daily Nation crew had communicated their intent to the team’s chief executive officer Charles Obiny.

“Unfortunately we cannot allow you to cover the session or take the photos because I do not have the communication,” Yonah said. Attempts by the news crew to intervene fell on deaf ears as the overzealous Yonah would hear none of it.

“Because the CEO is unreachable (on his mobile phone phone), you cannot continue, unfortunately, because there was no communication.”

Practically new on the job, Yonah, it seems, is out to define her territory and put the Fourth Estate to their place.

Flashback to November 19, 2016, at the Nyayo National Stadium, as the brewers were crowned league champions, Yonah was at it again, this time rudely cutting short an interview by the Daily Nation crew with coach Paul Nkata.

Her boss James Musyoki said: “That’s news to me. It’s a policy that you inform us that you’ll be coming but what happened is unfortunate.”