Nzoia boss Mokua hits out at KPL over Bandari “free points”

Joseph Saasia

Nzoia Sugar FC chairman Yapets Mokua has hit out at league organisers KPL after his team ‘lost’ three points for failing to honour a Saturday league match against Bandari in Mombasa.

The sugar millers were primed to face off with the Coastal based side Saturday afternoon at the Mbaraki Sports Club but did not travel, prompting match referees to award the tie to the Dockers with a 2-0 scoreline, the standard procedure in such instances.

However, a visibly infuriated Mokua is taking none of that.

In a stinging SMS to this writer, Mokua wondered out loud why the league management body arranged three consecutive away fixtures for his team, arguing it was unfair as it would “drain their pockets” as almost every team in the league is struggling financially.

“It is KPL to blame. They postponed Mathare vs Nzoia from December 15 to December 29, 2019,”he said, adding:“ In any civilised league, once you postpone a game, the new date is decided by the 3 parties i.e home team, away team & the league organisers. In our case, KPL does not consult anyone. They just fix the date regardless of your cash flow. They just throw from Bungoma to Msa & back in mid week & then back to Nrbi.”

He went further: “You cannot change fixture every two months as KPL does. You can’t give fixtures like 29/12/19 Mathare (A), 4/1/20 Bandari (A), 8/1/20 Chemelil (H), 12/1/20 Sofa (A).

“It is crazy. Something had to give in.”

However, KPL have maintained they did not alter the fixtures of Nzoia and have asked the team to shoulder the blame.

“The millers were aware of the catch up match against Mathare United and the following fixtures. It is about their poor planning, we have added nothing, they had the fixtures and were aware of the games in good time,” KPL CEO Jack Oguda told Citizen Digital.

Last year, Sony Sugar were relegated from the top league after they skipped three matches while Chemelil Sugar have so far missed two matches.