Jabuya: This is why Kintu lost his job at City Stars

Nairobi City Stars chairman Peter Jabuya has explained the circumstances leading to the sacking of Ugandan head coach Jimmy Kintu accusing the the tactician of having lacked commitment to the team’s cause.

According to Jabuya, the 31-year-old Ugandan who was relieved of his duties after three months in charge, was always ‘on the road’ and missed several training sessions, at times popping up on match day.

“I think he also had a lot of business back in Uganda because every other week he wanted to travel and could only have two or three training sessions with the players. For instance, before playing Bidco (United), we played Eldoret Youth and after the game instead of coming to Nairobi, he went to Kampala and came back on the day of the game against Bidco,” he noted.

Kintu faced the sack this week, barely a week after the club chairman alluded to cracking the whip after seeing an abysmal run of one win in 12 matches that now has the former Kenyan Premier League (KPL) side dangerously hanging in the red zone.

“I decided to let him go because surely bringing Jimmy on board was to at least try to uplift the performance of the club, but it never worked for him. Because if you look at 12 matches and only one win, I think that was not fair; so we mutually agreed he has to go back,” said Jabuya.

John Amboko, the man who was demoted to his assistant after his arrival takes over for the remainder of the season, assisted by team manager and former Kenya international Tillien Oguta, with the team three points off safety with 15 matches left.

“We decided to let Amboko take over until the end of the season as we look at how things can be. He will be assisted by Tillien who has been the team manager. I believe he  has a wealth of experience and they can make the chances,” the club chairman revealed.

City Stars were 16th in the 20-team league on eight points from 10 matches when Kintu took over, and the situation has since worsened dropping to third from bottom with 15 points after 13 rounds, a scenario that has made Jabuya rule out a possible return to the top flight next season, a relegation battle being more reality.

The side is having a third season in the second tier after being was relegated in 2016.