Westlands MP Wanyonyi rescues broke Leopards

AFC Leopards players were on Friday afternoon temporarily bailed out of a recurring financial crisis by a politician for the third time inside a month.

The players staged a sit-in at the Kenya Cinema in Nairobi, where they refused to travel to Western Kenya for a league assignment until their demands were met.

They were demanding for at least Sh20,000 each from their cumulative monthly salary arrears stretching back three months. “My family is starving and I haven’t even paid my rent for last month, I badly need the cash else I might even collapse on the pitch.” one of the team players told Saturday Nation Sport.

It took the intervention from Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi for the situation to change.

The legislator through his personal assistant gave the players Sh200,000 in cash, an amount that was shared equally by the 20 players. The team then left for Mumias at midday, five hours past the agreed departure time.

“The club’s current administrators lack focus. I am working with some of my friends to secure the team some consistent income but I cannot entrust them to handle those monies,” Wanyonyi said in a telephone interview.

This development comes barely a fortnight since Cord leader Raila Odinga and Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho each donated Sh100,000 to bail the team from detention at a Mombasa Hotel.

Wanyonyi, and Webuye MP Alfred Sambu, also donated Sh12,000 to each player and technical bench member last month, in the wake of the financial surge caused by an abrupt withdrawal of a Sh35 million sponsorship arrangement by Mumias Sugar.