NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 22 – Former Tusker and Bandari FC assistant coach George Owoko has been named as the new Naiorbi Stima head coach on a two-year deal after the exit of Ibrahim Shikanda and his assistant Fred Ambani following their failure to secure Kenyan Premier League promotion.
Shikanda announced after the final game of the season a fortnight ago that he would not be continuing in his role as the club’s head coach following their 4-1 thumping by KCB while Ambani followed suit in exiting the club.
Owoko whose most recent duty was with the St. Anthony’s High School team at the National School Games in Eldoret took charge of his first session on Monday morning.
“I will have like nine days with the team to assess the players so that I know what we need for the new season before we break for the post-season rest. I had the first session today and hopefully we can work well for the remaining days and plan for the new season,” Owoko told Capital Sport.
-Throw chance
Stima finished fourth in the National Super League after throwing away a chance of earning both automatic promotion and a play-off slot following a series of bad results over their last four games.
Shikanda speaking after the KCC match was an angered man blaming his players for the failure to push for promotion while sources intimate the technical bench and the management were not speaking on the same wavelength.
Owoko meanwhile is looking forward to help the team earn promotion and says he is ready for the task.
“Shikanda and Ambani did a very good job while with the club and I would like to continue from where they left. I am ready for this challenge and my target is to help the team get promotion to the KPL next season,” Owoko said.
The tactician worked under Paul Nkata at Tusker FC helping the club to a memorable league and cup double before following him to Bandari where he also worked as an assistant coach.
-School games
The 40-year old has majorly been working for schools and won the 2018 Copa Cocacola Championship with St. Anthony’s in Eldoret while his senior team finished third. He also led Barding High School to their maiden school games title in 2016.
At Nairobi Stima, he will be assisted by former Kakamega Homeboyz defender Evans Mafuta who joins in after guiding Eldoret Youth to their maiden National Super League promotion.
“He is a person I know since he played for me when I was coaching at Homegrown and I trust in his abilities,” Owoko said of his assistant.