Gor’s greatness queried, but readers love Oliech

What you need to know:

  • Greetings from the idyllic city of Saint Petersburg, Florida. As I wrote this piece, Ed Sheeran is crooning a line from his famous song ‘We found love’.
  • As he sings about growing old and the feet no longer move as they used to before, I am reminded of the furore that has been the story doing round about the legendary footballer Dennis Oliech.
  • On that note today I am having one last word on Denno and with the time honoured tradition of the right to reply, today I am giving responses of readers on what I said last week about Dennis the Menace and what they think about the man.

Greetings from the idyllic city of Saint Petersburg, Florida. As I wrote this piece, Ed Sheeran is crooning a line from his famous song ‘We found love’.

As he sings about growing old and the feet no longer move as they used to before, I am reminded of the furore that has been the story doing round about the legendary footballer Dennis Oliech.

On that note today I am having one last word on Denno and with the time honoured tradition of the right to reply, today I am giving responses of readers on what I said last week about Dennis the Menace and what they think about the man.

One Nanjala said: “Indeed Dennis Oliech should be celebrated for being the first to break into meaningful international football and paving the way for others.

“I am not a social media buff but what filtered down to me left a sour taste. I easily detected jealousy and malice. Even if he had truly fallen on hard times which he hasn’t, would that be a reason to deny his greatness?”

Another reader, Elias Kaburu agreed with Nanjala.

The good man said: “Hi Mr Osanjo. I agree fully with your column in today’s Daily Nation. Personally, my closest meeting with Oliech was three years ago when we had a harambee for our late dad.

“When we went to bank the cash at a bank, Oliech’s sister was ahead of us in the queue. So when our turn came to bank the teller almost posted in Oliech’s account.

“He panicked but I was not worried since I knew that even if no one realised at that point, Oliech family would have reversed that transaction later.

“It’s very sad of some of us wont can’t see what Oliech has done for the country.”

Mundia Kamau concurred with his fellow readers but took issue with my assertion about the greatness of Gor Mahia.

He said: “I refer to your article in which you assert that Gor Mahia FC is the greatest club in East and Central Africa.

“I beg to differ, Tom. TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are so far, the most successful football club in East and Central Africa.

“TP Mazembe have so far won the Confedaration of African Football (CAF) Champions League, five times (1967, 1968, 2009, 2010 and 2015), have so far won the CAF African Cup Winners’ Cup once (1980), have so far won the CAF Confederation Cup once (2016), have so far won the CAF Super Cup three times (2010, 2011 and 2016), and were runners-up to Inter-Milan of Italy in the 2010 Fifa Club World Cup.”

Thanks guys for reading.