Gor Mahia deny allegations
Reports emanating from the various outlets suggest that both Gor Mahia and Yanga of Tanzania have been accused of using Juju.
Yanga declined to use the designated changing rooms for fear that the rooms may have been laced with potent charms that could work against them during the match.
Gor Mahia refused to use the main entrance reserved for playing teams, and instead entered the National Stadium pitch using an alternative entrance, which is restricted to stadium staff only.
Because this alternative entrance was locked at that time, the team broke the door and made their way inside, something that caused the tournament’s Local Organising Committee to write to Cecafa boss Nicholas Musonye asking him to take action against the Kenyan team.
A Kogalo official said they were only taking basic safety precautions to guard themselves from the “strong medicine” laid by their opponents for the day.
“We have our people here and they had warned us in advance that the opponent had planned something for us. Our informants told us to avoid the changing rooms and any enclosure where the entire team members could be found together. That is why we avoided the main entrance and the locker rooms,” he said to the Nation.
Juma Pondamali, the Yanga goalkeeper trainer who was a legendary goalkeeper in his heyday has denied that Yanga uses withcraft.
“When I was a player I would always consult a witch doctor, and I retired as the top goalkeeper in the country. For that I have no regrets. But that was very long ago. Things have since changed and nowadays people believe in the scientific ways of enhancing performance.
“If there is any witchcraft being practiced in Yanga, then it is being done by individual players who are chasing individual brilliance but not by the team as a whole.
Asked to weigh in on reports that K’Ogalo is being powered by witchcraft in this campaign, Mensa said: “I cannot authoritatively confirm that they (Gor) subscribe to witchcraft because I have not seen their charms. Some of their actions during this tournament are however very strange. What they did when we played them in the opening match suggest that they strongly believe in those things,” he said
Use of charms of witchcraft has become a rarity in modern football. However back in the 1970s and 1980s it was common for teams including Gor Mahia and AFC to visit a witchdoctor on the night before games. And in some cases a team witchdoctor was on the technical bench and even posed for team pictures.
Many players would visit a known
