• Opondo defended Majak’s documents saying they had acquired his license number from the Football Kenya Federation and had a valid work permit.
• The boy is a criminal and an age cheat who should be in prison right now — Shimanyula.
Image: /OLIVER MORGAN
Tusker team manager George Opondo has slammed Kakamega Homeboyz chairman Cleophas Shimanyula for unprofessional conduct following the club’s ordeal on their way from Mumias over the weekend.
Tusker, who were en-route to Nairobi after their match against Vihiga United, claim that Shimanyula colluded with Police to intimidate them, forcing them to cut short their journey back to Nairobi.
The club and Shimanyula have been embroiled in a tussle after the latter signed Sudanese and former Homeboyz forward David Majak in the last transfer window, triggering Shimanyula to claim that the player has fake identification documents. Majak, the 2018 Chapa Dimba na Safaricom Most Valuable Player signed for Homeboyz in January 2018 and later switched to Mt Kenya United before decamping to Tusker in March. Tusker claimed Shimanyula set them up and were trailed by a suspicious car before being stopped at Maseno and requested to record a statement in Kisumu.
“A car resembling that of police trailed us from Mumias to Maseno where we found a roadblock and we were stopped by police who did not even produce any identification document.
“They directed us to proceed to the station and record a statement but we declined. The police who were clearly working under Shimanyula’s instructions claimed that we had a foreigner in our bus whose identification documents were fake.”
“We challenged them to produce the legit ones or prove what was at our disposal was fake as they alleged. We wasted a lot of time and were subjected to unnecessary intimidation that is unprofessional from Shimanyula. He doesn’t work in the immigration office to ascertain the boy’s documents are fake,” he claimed.
Opondo defended Majak’s documents saying they had acquired his license number from the Football Kenya Federation and had a valid work permit. All foreigners plying their trade in the country are required to produce a working permit before signing deals. “The federation issued the player with a card and they know his case very well. They gave us the green light to sign him and he has a valid work permit too. I think Homeboyz should cease from frustrating the rookie forthwith.”
However, Shimanyula labelled Majak an ‘age cheat’ and challenged him to present himself to the police and clear his name. Shimanyula claimed the player’s original name is John Dot and had swapped his birth certificate with a Sudanese form four student at Chewoyet High School under the name David Majak.
The controversial chairman produced a copy of the player’s contract signed on January 1, 2018, which bore the name John Dot and further alleged that he was 23 years rather than 18. He also produced copies of his form four result slip from Tomena Mixed Day Secondary School, his alien ID, birth certificate and Majak’s primary school result slip.
“The boy is a criminal and an age cheat who should be in prison right now. We signed him after last year’s Chapa Dimba na Safaricom finals as John Dot as per his documents.
He later acquired a birth certificate of a form four student, who is the original David Majak and we have all the copies with us. His original age is 23 and not 18 and I can also confirm that he doesn’t work a working permit, what he did is he just applied but he is yet to be issued with it.”