Judith Nyangi addressed the most important issues
On Wednesday August 5, Radio Jambo presenter Joseph Ogidi, popularly known as Gidi Gidi, and media personality / journalist Tony Anelka hosted a debate featuring the aspirants for the position of honorary treasurer.
Say what you may about her lack of degree or lack of qualifications and her lack of tact. But if there is anyone who said all the things that needed to be said at Wednesday’s debate, it was the infamous Judith Anyango aka “Nyangi”. It was she who pinpointed the most pressing issue facing the club today. The issue that hinders the club from progressing to the level of other regional teams like Simba FC, TP Mazembe and the Zambian clubs. All things considered, she won the debate despite being an outsider.
Watch her comments starting from the 1:06:55 mark. She laid bare all the issues that are afflicting this club.
The most important issue affecting the club is the lack of trust from fans. It is the reason that club membership has plummetted from 2000 to only 500. It is one of the reason why match attendance had plummetted from about 10,000 fans per game in 2011 to about 500 per game in 2019.
Nyangi started by saying that she knows all the corruption that has been occurring at the club. She noted that the club must harness fans goodwill by being transparent and assuring the fans that money is well taken care of and accounted for. This includes the money coming in from sponsors which Nyangi says that sometimes just disappears from the club accounts as soon as it is deposited by sponsors. She stated that in some cases, match attendance is good yet players don’t receive their match allowances.
Perhaps the most important issue that Nyangi noted was the lack of financial structures. According to Nyangi, the club is now being run through “System ya majambazi“, whereby the chairman acts not only as the chairman, but also the secretary general and treasurer. When the club treasurer goes to the bank to ask for a bank statements, the bank calls Rachier to ask if they can give the statement to the treasurer.
Nyangi noted that when Players were sold nobody knew what the transfer fee was. For example, at first when Walusimbi was sold and club officials denied that they received money only to admit that they did indeed receive the money. But it is still not clear how much was received for Walusimbi. This is why fans are staying away said Nyangi.
On membership, Tony Anelka asked Nyangi why as organizing secretary, she was unable to register members even though this is her responsibility.
Nyangi responded that Membership recruitment should be performed by the whole club. She said “I traversed the country asking the fans to register. But fans asked where the rest of the officials are. I felt like I was bearing the burden of membership recruitment alone without participation from other club officials.”
Nyangi also noted that Membership proceeds would come into the club and would disappear. She noted that due to Mambo ya giza. Fans were discouraged from becoming members.
Nyangi continued to say “If things are done the right way, fans are ready to contribute if we do simple things that don’t need a degree”.
When members raise issues they are told “Pak Gor idog e odi”. Which roughly translates to focus on supporting and leave financial management to us
In conclusion Nyangi noted that what the club needs is not people with degrees. Indeed what the club needs is a person who can do very basic and simple things to ensure accountability and transparency so that fans can return.
Chrispine Okoth
His opening monologue was very wordy, short on substance and full of big words. He did eventually propose some ideas. He noted that there are KRA provisions that can be used to reduce the tax burden on players. His big ideas were on ways to reduce the clubs transportation costs. Per Okoth, the new sponsorship includes Ksh 6 million for transport. He proposes to ask the sponsor to advance the club the entire Ksh 6 million and also loan the club Ksh 4 million to buy a bus. The loan will be recouped by asking the sponsor to organize 3 big matches. On the issue of hotel fees, Okoth suggested that the club invest in guest houses all over the country that the club could use instead of paying for hotels.
The main thrust of Okoth’s argument was that none of his challengers have the required qualifications to vie for this position.
On transparency, he suggested to bring in branches to man the gates. As far as he is concerned, instances of people jumping over gates and refusing to pay for tickets will be reduced if branches man the gates.
Dolfina Odhiambo
She said the fact that she is not an accountant does not mean that she is incapable of being treasurer. She maintained that she knows how to read financial statements. She says that she was one of the people who wrote the club’s new constitution and her goal is to ensure that the club constitution especially the separation of duties that include a financial officer and a external auditor. She wants to create financial structures that will be used in posterity. On the issue of ticketing, Dolfina proposed the use of an in-house e-Ticketing system so that the club have control and perform internal audits. She vowed to bring transparency into the way the club is run.
Summary
Credit to Chrispine Okoth and Dolfina Odhiambo for their passion. But it must be said that Nyangi won this debate because she pinpointed the major problems affecting the club and provided very practical solutions which if implemented are sure to have an immediate impact on the club.
This article is not saying she is the most qualified. But she won the debate because clearly has the best understanding of what ails this club and what the best solution is
If as a fan you want to address the constant exodus of the club’s key players to Wazito, Tusker, to Zambia, Tanzania and so forth. If you want players not to go for several months with no pay, or to be locked in hotels, lose their spouses, face evictions, go without treatment for major injuries, then you must pay attention to what Nyangi said. Put your prejudices aside for a moment and ask yourself whether you really disagree with Nyangi.
Surely, Dolfina if you are not an accountant than why are you vieing for a post that is 100% accounts related. Kindly refer to introduction to HR notes.
Even more pathetic, is that you claim to be one of the authors of the new constitution that was meant to get people intelligent (degreed) enough to execute their EC mandate.
I can tell you for free that there are a lot of people out there ,even with no degrees, who can read financial statements. In fact most shareholders / members of companies can read financial statements.
However, believe you me producing accurate annual financial statements and running an efficient and effective financial system/ office for an organisation is a totally different issue.
If in doubt ask Sally Bolo who failed to produce any accounts at the last AGM.
Like you, Judith Nyangi can probably run the GMFC finance office but in an unprofessional / amateurish and erratic way.
I disagree with the author, the best bet is for GMFC’s finance office is Chrispine Okoth who will handle KRA issues, competently undertaking cost benefit analysis, take advantage of tax benefits, advise on investment of surplus funds e.g on receipt of sponsorship installments etc etc BECAUSE AS A QUALIFIED FINANCE PROFESSIONAL HE HAS THIS INFORMATION AT HIS FINGERTIPS.
If we were to go with what Judith says then we are far from making gor look like clubs such as Simba,Supersport… And the rest.The language being used and the way money is spent makes Gor just resemble atypical luo funeral committee runned by a luo village chairman.
If that is how rachier behaves then he makes gor look like a luo funeral affair where the chairman is everything and the luo stupid and primitive arrogance is the order of the day.
I wonder what rachier wants to do which he could not do in the last 12 years.
I don’t think any of the candidates are impressive. They all have major flaws. This is because our constitution does not allow for the selection of competent candidates. This club should be run by competent professionals all on performance contracts.
Many people hate Judith Nyangi. But she is right on all points. The issue is very simple and it does not need kizungu mingi by Chrispine Okoth.
And I don’t think Okoth’s ideas are practical. He wants the club to buy guest houses all over Kenya? Does he think this club has the capacity to operate and maintain guest houses profitably? I think NOT. Also he did not explain where the money to buy said guesthouses would come from
He also wants to buy a bus. My take is that the cost of maintaining a bus might be higher than the cost of hiring a minibus for the entire year. If he wants to be impressive, he should show us numbers comparing the cost of owning a bus versus the cost of hiring a minibus. If you buy a bus you will have to pay for storage, insurance, maintenance etc. Buses have to pay for themselve
Asked by a Mr Anelka why she did not recruit members yet that was her responsibility as Organising Secretary , Anyango aka Nyangi replied thus “it is the responsibility of the whole club to recruit members ” , if I was to escalate that further , then if Bolo was to be asked why the club was leaking so much revenue , as per the wisdom of the author of this article , Bolo would be justified to respond that being responsible for the treasure is the work of the whole club and the author would declare her the winner of a debate and a justification for a semi illiterate to be an official of a club of Gor Mahia’s stature .
Systemic and structural problems that is the problem in Gor Mahia courtesy of decades of exponential decay cannot be solved by simplistic and populist rhetoric .
If one was to have a debate between Mike Mbuvi Sonko Vs General Badi , the author of this article would declare Sonko the winner , because General Badi would come out as Boring as Chris was against Nyangi .
The quality of management in Gor in 2011 where the author quotes Nyangi waxing lyrical about tens of thousands of fans attending matches as opposed to 2019 when it is 500 or less , is as substandard (quality of leadership ) as it is now , in short, the reason why the attendance has gone down is because in 2011 , all or most of Gor matches were either played at City. Stadium or at Nyayo , a fan only needed an average of 100/= fare to and fro to attend matches , 100/= at the gate , total 200/= as opposed to a budget of 800/=plus +200 gate to watch a match at the nearest stadia which is Machakos , but the author and Nyangi were so much into declaring a win that this primary school logic escaped them .
A few days ago , an article was posted on this wall suggesting that the registrar of Sports had demanded that Nyangi must not be “unfairly blocked ” from contesting , something that one had to be functionally illiterate to discern as such and now even before we recover our breathe from that drunken incoherence , we are again hit by a “Nyangi won a debate inspite of not having a degree ” -Aiiish .
The people were being interviewed vis a vis the position of treasurer , what does rhetoric or the capacity to be an eloquent lamenter got to do with Finance .
She gave a very good answer when asked the question. She said that fans stopped being members because they were not being told what was done with their money. You pay Ksh 1200 in membership fees. Then when you ask how your money was used , you are told “Pak Gor idog eodi” That is why membership has plummeted.
And since when is the organizing secretary solely responsible for membership recruitment?
At Ingwe, Dan Shikanda has set a personal goal of recruiting 10,000 members by end of year. Ingwe currently has 2000 members, something that Shikanda prides himself in.
Shikanda understands that the task of recruiting members falls with him as the Chairman. Not the organizing secretary.
Why are people acting as if Rachier is innocent and Nyangi is the problem? I dont understand this. Membership numbers were falling long before Nyangi became official.
So what is new about what Nyangi is telling us that you and I didnt know already , we knew all those details without us being officials because it is our business to know , complain and it is the duty of a duly elected official to give as solutions and not join us in complaining , and if that’s all she does , then its good that she is soon joining us as ordinary members .
On to the remaining contenders for the treasurer’s job I.e Dr Chris and Dolphina , it is sad that despite the fact that in my opinion Dr Chris is the better candidate (my opinion) , he may lose the elections because because while Dolphina is lobbying and mobilising , which she started by knowing who the voting fanbase were , Dr Chris apart from being uninspiring , is just sitting on his laurels waiting for manna , ofcourse my vote goes to him but my vote may lose like it did when I voted for Giddy (who also behaved the same ) for Sec Gen elections in the last elections , I dare add that it is the same problem Didier Drogba is having in his quest to become the President of his country’s federation .
All I expect is that everybody who will be elected knows what their job description is , and lamentation and joining fans in complaining has never been a job description even in a ajua or busaa club , we expect the busaa to be good and not you joining us in complaining why the busaa is dilute and has no foam at the top on that day .
I am not concerned with who gets elected. The same people who were elected with good manifestos like Sally and Rachier and Ngala are the very same corrupt people whom you think will give is solutions.
Unless financial structures are implemented at Kogalo, we will still have the same problems. Even if you favourite Okoth is elected, he will not have a free hand to do his duties.
As soon as the season starts, players will be going for several months without pay and their will be constant rumours of key players going to Tanzania or Wazito or Zambia.
I am sick and tired of repeating this cycle every year. Officials will never help us when they can eat. We need structures to be implemented to prevent this.
The definition of madness is to repeat the same mistake every 4 years and expect different results.
@Sijeyo thanks for a simple and logical reasoning. It does not take one to have a degree to explain to me how my registration fee has been used with proper evidence of documentations