Rachier plays down Muguna exit rumours

Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier has denied rumours linking former skipper Kenneth Muguna with a move away from the club.

Muguna was stripped off the captain’s armband at the club last month and was replaced with Harun Shakava who recently rejoined the Kenyan Premier League champions from Nkana FC of Zambia.

Rachier while defending the club’s decision to re-appoint Shakava as the team’s captain as purely a technical resolve, he has also rubbished claims that Muguna is unhappy with the decision.

In an interview with Citizen Digital, the long-serving administrator affirmed that Muguna is still their player and have not received any official communication from him yet.

“I just heard about it yesterday. Kindly treat those social media posts as rumours because he has not communicated to us on any intention to leave the club.

“We have procedures to follow in case a player wants to leave and all the players are in the picture. Any player who intends to leave should write to the club and make known his intentions. As for Muguna, we have not seen any disquiet which can lead to his departure,’’ said Rachier.

Rachier’s sentiments were echoed by the team manager Jolawi Obondo who said they have had no problem with the player and that he also saw his departure intent on social media.

“We are in communication with the player and at no single time has he said he intends to ditch the club. I have also read about this on social media,’’ Jolawi said.

The Kenyan international is in the final six months of his contract at the club and Jolawi revealed that any player who has less than six months remaining on his contract is open to negotiations with the club.

“In the case of Muguna, he has neither requested for renewal nor departure. The law is clear on this. As of now, we know he is still our player for the next six months,” he said.

At the same time, Jolawi also dismissed talk of a possible exit of shot-stopper Boniface Oluoch who he said was training with the group prior to the government’s directive to suspend sporting activities in the country a fortnight ago.

This comes after reports that Oluoch had ditched the club alongside goalkeeper trainer Willis Ochieng after allegations of match-fixing rocked the record premier league winners.