The fall of Thika United

It has been roughly two years since the dissolution of Thika United FC, an event that marked an unfortunate end to one of the country’s most exciting football clubs.

The club had been in existence for two decades during which it become one of the top FKF Premier League teams before a series of events that began six years ago set it up to fall.

As a new Football Kenya Federation (FKF) administration took office in 2016, it made sweeping changes in the running of clubs with the implementation of FIFA club licensing requirements.

Among those requirements were for clubs to prove they could indeed sustain themselves as business outfits by opening up its books for scrutiny.

The entire process is designed to improve club football by targeting key areas such as best practices in club governance and youth football.

Most clubs, among them Thika United, failed to meet the threshold and were demoted to the lower leagues.

That proved to be the unfortunate single moment that sparked the demise of the team as its long term shirt sponsor pulled the plug on their 15-year partnership and forced club founder Michale Muriuki to begin dipping into his own pockets to keep it afloat.

According to Muriuki, the club licensing requirements had been weaponised by the FKF president Nick Mwendwa to punish teams which he felt were opposed to his new administration.

“The club licensing was a political move to axe football clubs that refused to dance to the tune of the then FKF leadership. That killed our club,” Muriuki told Citizen Digital.

John Njogu, who coached Thika United during her last season in the KPL, confirms that there were rumors about a conflict between the club’s management and the federation.

“We heard that the relationship between the club secretary general and the federation leaders was very cold but I believe the club went down following the exit of the sponsor. I regret that the club is no more, football stars were born in Thika United including Michael Olunga, Francis Kahata, Cliffton Miheso and Dennis Odhiambo among many others.

“Thika United was like a powerhouse, producing great talents who could later be poached by other clubs,” Njogu who is now an elected Member of County Assembley in Kiambu County regrets.

At the time sponsor left the club, Thika finished the 2017 season ranked 16th in an 18-team-table with 38 points in 34 matches, winning eight, drawing 14 times and losing 12 matches.

The signs of decline had been written on the walls of Thika municipal stadium, Thika United’s home ground, and the club survived relegation by one place and just by a one-goal goal difference!

In the following season, 2018, Muriuki had to use his savings to fund the club with the hope of inking another deal with another sponsor but that was not forthcoming.

His move of funding a club in a top flight league using his personal resources was unsustainable and did not last.

“I was forced to use what I had saved and it reached a point that the burden was too heavy for me, paying salaries of at least Sh 18,000 per month to 25 players was not easy. I got drained,” he said.

Players went for months without salaries and allowances, leading to frustrations and demotivation among the playing unit who went on to record extremely poor results.

Samuel Chege, a former player at Thika United who now works at construction site as a casual laborer, hates to remember the glorious moments when the club used to run a budget of over Sh15 million per season.

“Thika United took me to school, they paid for my education and I chose football as my career. Everything went south when the sponsor left and we went for months without pay. Some of us were locked out of our rental houses and it was really bad. We had to look for other ways to survive,” Chege narrates.

Right at the middle of the 2018 season, 13 top players left the struggling club on a free transfer forcing the club to turn to its youthful, inexperienced and cheap squad, the likes of Chege who graduated to the first team.

The good times for Thika United were over. They struggled to get a point and it is in this year (2018) that the relegation axe finally fell on them after finishing last with 23 points out of possible 102, suffering 21 defeats, managing eight draws and beating five teams in the entire season. It was terrible.

They carried that abysmal form into the National Super League (NSL) and as a result dropped one tier lower again to Division One in 2019 after losing 23 matches, drawing eight and winning just seven.

However, there is still hope that the club may resurrect and come back to footballing life. Muriuki, who now owns a printing and jersey shop in the busy Thika town, reveals that he still receives calls from players wanting to join the club.

“We had laid a very strong foundation of nurturing and developing young talents but someone shattered our dream. If we can get a sponsor today, Thika United will be back like we never left. Our website is still active.” Muriuki said.

His views were echoed by Njogu who blames the region’s big companies and its millionaire owners who just watched as the club fell apart.

“In Ruiru for instance, there are tens of big companies but none bothers to invest in football, it is sad,” Njogu offered.

The newly elected MCA Gitothua Ward in Kiambu County runs a football academy in Ruiru town.

In their last quest to try and win at least a point in the last days in NSL, Thika United suffered a humiliation at home after going down 7-1 to Kisumu All Stars who finished the league in style with a point adrift of the then NSL Champions, Wazito FC.