In the 1986 derby AFC leopards still had the “ghosts of Khartoum” haunting them. That it was their son, from Musanda, whom they had earlier rejected who inflicted the pain made it worse.
But Gor Mahia went to Khartoum ’85 saying ‘Ooh we have come home to our ancestors’ if you follow the story of the Luo’s following the Nile.
The ’84 ban had robbed Gor Mahia of their 1st eleven of sorts and they were considered a weakened army. They looked vulnerable, but the spirit of wuod Ogalo met the spirit ‘kwere’ and thought otherwise.
Therefore in the ’86 derby at the Nyayo Stadium, a win for Ingwe was victory and a 2-0 was sweet revenge.
Word had it that the then football supremo Wekesa Alfred Sambu had ‘planted a skull at the then Nairobi West Stadium during the construction. The peddlers of this theorem seemed to carry the day as beating the leopard at The Nairobi West was not easy.
In ’86 1st leg derby Leopards started the match with purpose while k’Ogalo played beautiful football probably with confidence that Khartoum can be repeated. There was no repeat but revenge was in the offing Leopards were 2-0 up and with time running out it seemed the Khartoum revenge was complete and the ‘ghost of thr Nile’ erased.
K’Ogallo played some of their best football and every attack was thwarted and disappear and hit the terraces. The Isikutu dance and song became louder with the dying minutes and the K’Ogallo faithful resigned to fate “the ghost of Khartoum” is exposed.
The K’Ogalo fans not ready to bear the shame started trooping out of the stadium while at the same time hurling insults at the team boss Joab Henry Onyango mak’Omino, one whom they occasionally spoke in low tones about having some Luhya blood in him.
Just before the final whistle and with probably the last act of the match a goalmouth scramble resulted in a K’Ogallo goal and it was 2-1. The celebration was akin to a win as the “revenge of the Nile” was not to be.
These are days long gone.