Shakava reinstated as Gor Mahia captain to replace Muguna as Ochieng fired

Gor Mahia have confirmed changes to their leadership in the playing unit after midfielder Kenneth Muguna was dropped as the captain of the side.

The Kenyan champions, who have had a poor start to the season having already lost five matches from the 13 played, have also moved to fire their goalkeeper trainer Willice Ochieng.

Gor Mahia secretary-general Sam Ochola has confirmed to Goal the changes have been necessitated following the team’s poor start to the season, and remained hopeful they will start to pick up positive results.

“We have replaced Kenneth [Muguna] with Harun [Shakava] as the team captain and the changes will take effect immediately,” Ochola told Goal on Friday. “We have also moved to sack our keeper trainer Willice [Ochieng] and he will be replaced by our U20 keeper trainer Jerim Onyango.

“We have been forced to make those critical changes after the team started badly in the league and Caf assignments and we now hope the new changes will spur them to great heights.”

Ochola further confirmed Gor Mahia had planned to hand the armband to deputy captain Philemon Otieno but he turned down the offer.

“Our intention at the office was to promote Philemon [Otieno] to replace Muguna as the captain but the player turned down the offer, he never gave reasons as to why he did not want it but he told us he is not ready.

“We then decided to return the armband to Shakava, he has been here before, he has been the captain before and we know what he can do when he leads the team, we also feel he has the much-needed experience to bring the team together.

“Shakava also played a key role to bring the players together when they staged a go-slow recently and we feel he deserves to lead the team, we have given him another chance and we know the changes will change the results of the team to the better.”

The move to make changes in the team comes four days after club chairman Ambrose Rachier and Ochola have opened up over the allegations of match-fixing involving the local league giants.

“We’ve had allegations of match-fixing going on in the club and we are treating the issue with the seriousness that it deserves. Investigations are on and we will get to know what’s there,” Rachier told Citizen Digital.

For his part, Ochola questioned the manner in which some losses have occurred as Gor Mahia fight to rise and join the top five teams.

"The issue of match-fixing is gaining traction and we are concerned," the official said. "We are investigating some players and club officials mentioned as possible contributors to these acts of match-fixing. Some of these games we have lost clearly direct us to believe it’s happening.”

Gor Mahia are seeking to win a fourth straight league title but must strive to topple Tusker, who have already reached 35 points from 15 matches.