Photo courtesy The Star

Full name: Gor Mahia Football Club
Founded: 17 February 1968; 54 years ago
Ground; Nyayo National, Stadium, Nairobi
Capacity: 60,000
Chairman: Ambrose Rachier
Manager: Johnathan McKinstry
Coach: Johnathan McKinstry
League: Kenyan Premier League
2021–22: 6th of 18

“Son of Ogalo”

Gor Mahia Football Club commonly also known as Kogalo (Dholuo for ‘”Son of Ogalo”‘), is a football club based in Nairobi, Kenya. They have won the Kenyan Premier League a record 19 times, and have also won the FKF President’s Cup a record 11 times. They are the only team from Kenya to win an African Continental Title to date, having won the African Cup Winners’ Cup in 1987 after previously reaching the final in 1979. And they did that undefeated.

Tom Mboya and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga

The club was formally Established on 17 February 1968 as a merger of Luo Union and Luo Sports Club, also known as Luo Stars, and won the National League at the first time of asking. Some of its original leaders were politicians Tom Mboya and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

The new name of Gor Mahia was coined by Football enthusiasts, one of them called, Alfred Olang’o Ongoro. However the club was founded much earlier, in the 1915, and participated intermittently in local tournaments in Western Kenya. Various groups used this name at different times.

Rivalry with AFC

The most fierce opponents if Gor Mahia Football Club was AFC Football Club, then called Abaluhia Football Club. The Tribal Names were banned by the then President Daniel Arap Moi in 1987 but Gor Mahia F.C. escaped the purge because they were Champions if Mandela Cup that year.

The club plays its home games at the Nairobi City Stadium. Alternatively they also play their home games at the Moi International Sports Centre and the Nyayo National Stadium. It has been proposed that the club hosts some of its home matches at its alternate Stadiums in its earlier days, the Kisumu County Stadium and the Mombasa Municipal Stadium. Gor Mahia F.C. has the biggest Fans in Kenya if not Eastern and Central Africa.

Silverware

The club won the Kenya National Football league in 1968, having been formally founded only in February of the same year. In 1976, Gor Mahia won the National League unbeaten, and repeated the same feat 39 years later under the leadership of Frank Nuttall.

Towards the end of the 2000s, Gor started bouncing back to fame steadily bringing Kenyan football fans back to the pitch and regularly filling sold-out Stadiums.

The club returned to silverware in 2008 when it won the KFF Cup after a thirteen-year drought of any major trophies. Gor proceeded to win the Kenya DSTV Super Cup against the year’s defending champs, Mathare United before the beginning of the 2009 KPL season. On 26 October 2011 Gor Mahia in typically dominant fashion trounced Sofapaka to win the 2011 Edition of the FKL Cup, having dispatched their arch rivals AFC Leopards six days earlier in a 20 October Heroes Day thriller.

FIFA Ban

Currently Gor Mahia Football Club is not doing well at 2022-2023 Football Kenya League. Out of Six Games, they have won four, lost One and drawn one, having only 10 points and are currently sixth in the league. This is because former officials did not pay for international players they signed fronting FIFA, Federation of International Football Association to ban the Club from signing new football players.

It is hoped that when the club will be allowed to sign new international players and have enough strength as other teams, Kogalo will come back to form and do what they are known of doing, winning trophies.

Some of the current players doing duty for Gor Mahia F.C. are:

Daniel Onyango 32 Midfielder
John Ndirangu 27 Attack
Eliud Lukuwan 25 Attack
Michael Ochieng’ 20 Midfielder
Kelvin Musoti 31 Defender
Alpha Onyango 22 Midfielder
John Nyawir 23 Midfielder
Sydney Wahongo 26 Midfielder
Victor Ochieng’ 33 Forward
Adama Keita 32 Goalkeeper
Elvis Opiyo 27 Goalkeeper
Gad Mathew 25 Goalkeeper
Geoffrey Ochieng’ 26 Centre Back