Gor Mahia official detained in Algiers over unpaid hotel bill
Gor Mahia treasurer Dolphina Odhiambo has been detained at a hotel in Algiers, Algeria, over an unpaid hotel bill accrued by the club during the festive season, Nairobi News understands.
The Kenyan champions toured Algeria at the weekend for the 6-0 thrashing by hosts CR Belouizdad on Boxing Day in the first round of the Caf Champions League.
The second leg showdown between the two teams is scheduled for January 6, 2020, in Nairobi.
Sources at the club have told Nairobi News Odhiambo was forced to remain in Algeria when the team returned to Nairobi after that match.
There are claims the hotel management insisted the bill, amounting to Sh600,000, had to be cleared first, and in full, before allowing the team to check out of the hotel.
But then, Odhiambo managed to negotiate herself into custody at the expense of the team which returned on Monday.
“She didn’t travel back with us because the hotel bill had not been cleared. Things were tough because had we missed the flight we would also have suffered much,” said a source who was in the travelling party last week.
It is also not yet clear whether the broke team have since sorted out the hotel bill and if Odhiambo, a confidant of club chairman Ambrose Rachier, would be back in the country.
The situation appears complicated for Odhiambo as the Algerian air space is locked on government orders as the country seeks to take a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the North African country.
Details on whether the debts have been paid also remain scanty even as club fans aired their frustration on the ever ending squabbles and financial shortcomings at the club on social media.
With the return leg beckoning, Gor Mahia players are expected to resume training on January 3 but that remains in doubt as the players remain on strike, demanding unpaid salaries and bonuses stretching to two months.