There was a time when Gor Mahia did not need ninety minutes to win a football match. The moment the fixture list came out and teams saw K’Ogalo’s name, the damage was already half done.
Those days are gone.
The goalless draw against Shabana at Gusii Stadium was not an accident, nor was it an off day. It was a mirror held up to a club that has slowly drifted away from the principles that once made it great. Gor Mahia did not dominate, did not intimidate and did not look like a team chasing a title. They looked ordinary.
And that should worry everyone who cares about Kenyan football.
For all the noise that surrounds Gor Mahia, the massive following, the history, the talk of “giants”, the reality on the pitch tells a different story. This is a team that struggles to impose itself, that labours in possession and that too often relies on moments rather than method.
The problems start off the pitch. Gor Mahia have become far too comfortable with instability. Leadership wrangles, caretaker arrangements and endless power struggles have turned chaos into routine. Football clubs are not run on slogans and history; they are run on planning, discipline and clarity of purpose.
Recruitment has been equally uninspiring. Gor Mahia used to sign players who raised the level of the league. Today, they sign players who merely fill the squad. There is no clear footballing identity, no sense of what kind of team Gor Mahia want to be. Are they a pressing side? A possession team? A counter-attacking outfit? Watching them week in, week out, it is hard to tell.
On the technical side, the revolving door of coaches has robbed the team of continuity. Every new coach arrives promising change, but without time or stability, the result is always the same, short-term patches and long-term decline. Players look unsure, systems look half-baked and matches drift away.
Perhaps most damaging is the loss of fear. Opponents now come to Gor Mahia believing they can get something, and more often than not, they do. When smaller clubs walk onto the pitch with confidence rather than caution, something fundamental has shifted.
This is not to say Gor Mahia are finished. Far from it. They remain a powerful brand with unmatched support. But belief alone does not win titles. Sentiment does not score goals.
If Gor Mahia are serious about reclaiming their place at the top, hard decisions must be made. Governance must be cleaned up. Recruitment must be smarter. Coaches must be backed — or not hired at all. Above all, the club must rediscover its footballing identity.
Because in modern Kenyan football, history is respected, but it is not feared.
