Western Stima purge leaves 14 players jobless

Western Stima have swung the axe on 14 players deemed  surplus to requirements barely three weeks after a highly publicized match-fixing scandal

The club has not been performing well in the Football Kenya Premier League and club chairman Laban Jobita has wasted no time to clean the house, and is expected to sign an equal number.

“Yes, it is true we have released 14 players to go and look for greener pastures elsewhere,” Jobita said.

The released players include longserving goalkeeper and team captain Samuel Odhiambo, Marvin Ayoro, Devans Shakil, Spencer Obura, Austine Wahongo, Vincent Oluoch, Abdrahaman Mango and Ezekiel Wandanda.

Others are Mark Ochieng, Hamid Aki, Darry Odhiambo, Elly Otieno, Sharriff Khaemba, and Wycliffe Aguero.

However, the chairman declined to admit that he has fired the players because of match fixing allegations that rocked the club last month.

A Ugandan national, Ronald Nigawira, was last month arrested as he was found allegedly trying to fix the team’s match against KCB.

Nigawira was later released after Jobita withdrew the charges.

“I have not said they were involved in match fixing. I don’t want to say that and I don’t want to comment on the allegations,” he said, adding that underperformance is the main reason why he axed the players.

“The team is underperforming. When you look at the table now, we are second last deep into the relegation zone. We need fresh players,” he said.

“Additionally, the squad is too big to manage considering our financial constraints. I want to build a new squad of 23 players and not 30 we initially had,” he concluded.

Jobita said the technical bench which is headed by the newly signed coach Abdallah Juma will work with 16 players currently available as he looks forward to signing seven players in the coming days.