Supporters of Gor Mahia Football Club are calling on the club leadership to honour their financial obligation to players and ensure their interest and welfare is a top priority. The calls came in the wake of numerous claims by the current and former players at the club who are owed millions of shillings in unpaid allowances, salaries and even transfer fees.
The team has of late faced legal suits emanating from former players demanding payments running into millions of shillings. Supporters have even sent out an appeal to club patron Raila Odinga and other well-wishers to come to the aid of the club before matters get out of hand. One such case is that of former player Clifford Miheso who has sued the club demanding payment of salaries and allowances.
The matter landed at the Sports Disputes Tribunal Appeal which ordered the club to pay Mr Miheso Ksh.2, 225,500 the club owed him through a ruling dated 8th August 2023. The Tribunals’ Chairperson Mrs Elynah Sifuna-Shiveka and the Panel dismissed the club’s reasons for not paying Mr Miheso terming them as flimsy. Some of the payments owed to Mr Mihesa like the training, signing fee and winning allowances remain outstanding since 2019. The ruling by the Pnel reads in part “We find Gor’s conduct cavalier and the reasons advanced for not honoring its contractual obligations more of a smokescreen and an opportunity to deny Mr Miheso his rightful dues without lawful cause”.
Mr Miheso filed a claim dated 02/02/2023 claiming he was employed by Gor Mahia on 09/08/2019 vide a contract as a football player at a gross monthly salary of Ksh. 150,000 per month, exclusive of other allowances. He further claimed that the contract required Gor Mahia to pay him Ksh. 1,500,000 as a signing fee in three equal monthly instalments on 15/08/2019, 15/09/2019 and 15/10/2019. The contract also required payment of a base allowance of Ksh.300 per day and Kshs. 5,000 allowance for winning a game. Mr Miheso further revealed that all these dues have not been paid and which makes a cumulatively total of Ksh. 2,225,500 together with interest at the rate of 14.5% from July 2021.
However in a quick rejoinder, Gor claimed that Miheso was paid his signing bonus including his base allowance, training allowance and a winning allowance all of which were paid to him. Further, the club claimed that the claim for allowances between 9th August 2019 and 30th April 2020 and October 2020 to July 2021 is unwarranted as the FKF Premier League had been suspended on account of the Covid-19 pandemic and there were no ongoing games in the league for Mr Miheso to be entitled to any allowances as claimed.
The tribunal noted that the claim that the Covid-19 pandemic affected the fulfilment of the contract on the part of the club cannot be entertained as they have not cited any provision of the contract they
relied on.
The final orders read “It is therefore in consideration of this, as well as the parties’ submissions that the Tribunal makes the following orders: Judgment against the Respondent for a sum of Ksh.2, 225,500”.
