{"id":15119,"date":"2019-08-31T04:21:27","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T04:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/?p=15119"},"modified":"2019-08-31T04:21:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T04:21:31","slug":"rachier-i-am-not-leaving-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/rachier-i-am-not-leaving-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachier: I am not leaving soon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a wide ranging interview with the Standard Newspaper, touching on various topics, Chairman Ambrose Rachier indicated that he may not be leaving in December as earlier announced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview by the Standard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow, Ambrose Rachier (pictured) turns 70. His entry into the world was as dramatic as the life he has lived.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was born in a moving train, beneath a wooden bench, on the \nThird Class carriage where his mother went into labour enroute Molo. \nSince then, he says, he has never stopped moving.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If pressed for a description of himself, he gets conflicted. A \nrenowned lawyer, rhumba lover, French speaker and lecturer, but what he \nsays he is mostly known for is his role as the chairman of K’Ogalo, as \nGor Mahia FC is fondly known.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had said he quitting when the year ends, but he is now \nreconsidering the decision. \u201cMany people including sponsors have told me\n not to leave Gor Mahia. The sponsors say they may not want to continue \nif I am not there. I may hold on longer,\u201d he says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His admission reinforces what critics had suspected. Rachier is \nnot leaving. Despite the noise of \u201cout with the oldies and in with the \nyounglings\u201d that the fans have made online and off the net, he seems \nunfazed by the calls for him to handover.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since he was elected eleven years ago, it has been said that he \nbullies his way around, and is drunk with power. Some claim he swindles \nthe club.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambition and intellect<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople have called me Mugabe and claim I am forcing myself on \nthis seat. I can assure you that if someone contested against me, they \nwould not win,\u201d he says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachier was picked as Gor Mahia chairman in 2008, a few months \nafter he was floored in the Gem parliamentary elections. The decision to\n vie for a political seat, he says, is one of his biggest regrets.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got exposed to so much dishonesty and was being pushed to do things that I was not comfortable with,” he says\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachier was in his office, getting over the loss, when he heard a\n crowd shouting for him to get out. When he peered outside, he saw the \ngroup, in green shirts, the official colours of the club.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were shouting: \u201cGet out now and serve Gor!\u201d he says. He was led to City Stadium and installed as chairman.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sally Bolo, Gor Mahia treasurer says times were lean for the \nclub. They were at the bottom of the league. They needed help, and in \nRachier, they saw passion, ambition and intellect that Gor Mahia lacked.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe came and we rose. Since 2012, we were the unbeaten champions. Up from number 15 where he found us,\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the club, he imposed the diktat of his legal training that \nemphasises discipline. The fans were rough. The team got bad press. Some\n players rebelled. Still, Rachier says he used his networks to get the \nclub sponsorship and increase the players’ salaries from Sh3,000 per \nmonth, to Sh250,000 for the top players.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent sacking of Dennis Oliech from the club has provoked \nthe ire of supporters who say Rachier treats the club as his briefcase \ncompany and is behind the player’s woes.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Oliech is now threatening to sue the club because he was \ndismissed yet everyone knew that he had injuries. But Rachier says that \nthe player was sent packing because he declared interest in the Kibra \nparliamentary seat and skipped practice without apologies.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is all Photoshop. Someone created an image of me and \ncirculated it on social media. I was injured so I could not practice. \nThe club was just looking for a way to get rid of me, but I am taking \nthem to court,\u201d Oliech says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freemason by conviction<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off the field, Rachier has gone back to school to study \nBio-ethics. A combination of medicine and law. He says in five years, he\n will fold his legal files and retire. After practising for more than 40\n years, he looks forward to going back to the village in Gem, Siaya \nCounty, to write his autobiography.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What might make a good read for his book would be the things he \nis uncomfortable talking about. Like how he was an Anglican by birth, \nraised by a Canon who was drenched in the ways of the church, but he \nbecame a Freemason by conviction and conversion.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople do not understand Freemasonry. They think it is devil \nworship. It has the who-is-who of this country, and maybe that is why \nthey think so,\u201d he says, explaining that admission to Freemasonry is \nstrictly by referral from a member who can attest to a person\u2019s \ncharacter. He says their mandate is charity.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His close associates believe his Achilles heel is booze and \nwomen. They say not even age has faded the spark that flashes in his \neyes when a fine damsel crosses his path.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachier laughs, taps his foot and leans back in the leather seat in his law firm’s offices and sighs.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh\u2026I love my Whitecap. Nice. I love people. Nobody talks when I \nextend a helping hand to a man. But hell breaks loose when I show \ngenerosity to a woman,\u201d he says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his love for alcohol, he says if he was an addict, he would not have maintained his prestigious firm.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He admits he has made some slips. In 1984, when news came that \nthe first HIV patient had been admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital in\n Nairobi, Rachier was among the first people to react.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachier wrote a scathing letter to newsrooms. He wanted the \npatient and anyone else who was suspected to be HIV positive to be \narrested and confined. The next day, he was in the cartoon section, \nbeing lampooned.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was ignorant, just like everyone else. There was not much \nabout HIV and Aids, and I thought I was helping by saying that,\u201d he \nsays.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made up by doing research on HIV and Aids and ended up in the \nethics review committee of Kenya Medical Research Institute. Rachier was\n also chairman of HIV Equity Tribunal and the task-force that drafted \nthe HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His secret of staying young is regular exercise, and reading. As \nhe edges closer to retirement, Rachier says there is nothing much in \nthis world that scares him. Only a frog – because it is so wiggly and \nvulnerable.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything else to him can be conquered, including Gor Mahia, the unpredictable team that he has somehow managed to tame.\n\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t