Vihiga boss Indimuli backs coach Okoth to turn season around

Vihiga United president Kahi Indimuli has defended the club’s decision to hire Sammy Okoth as caretaker manager for the rest of the season following the dismissal of head coach Mike Mururi.

Mururi and and his two deputies, Tom Terra and Francis Xavier, were fired last week on the back of poor performances and Indimuli has backed Okoth to instigate an upturn.

“Okoth has been with Zoo Kericho FC for the past three years and it has been doing well apart from this year where they haven’t performed well,” Indimuli said.

In his first match in charge, Okoth led the team to a 2-2 draw with Mathare United and will eye his first victory when Vihiga visit Ulinzi Stars on Wednesday.

The tactician has been given the free hand to select an extra assistant coach after the club chose Vihiga Queens head coach Alex Alumira as first assistant.

“According to our own investigations, it is clear that the team was divided and each coach had his own camp and to avoid breaking the team apart we thought it was the best decision to let them go,” Indimuli added.

Salaries and Bonuses

The president refuted claims that the club’s poor performance was also spurred by unpaid salaries and bonuses saying that the issue was resolved.

“Players have already been paid apart from last month (March). We don’t have any arrears and I’m surprised to some reports being published that players haven’t been paid for the past four or five months,” he said

“The County government came up with a Sports Council which is to pay players but by the end of month of March, the new program had not been passed by the county assembly and by the time it was passed into law, the period of paying had been closed but after following up they promised to pay together with April salaries,” he added.