Nairobi — Players, who had their passports confiscated by the Italian Embassy and faced document forgery accusations by the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) have opened on the saga that left serious stains on their reputations.
The quartet of; Rooney Onyango, Musa Masika, Shariff Majabe and Ben Stanley Omondi were accused of using a forged clearance letter from FKF to obtain visas from the Italian Embassy.
The four had secured a trial opportunity with US Castrovillari Calcio but were denied visas by the Embassy after it emerged that one of the documents submitted was fake.
According to FKF, the Embassy, while conducting its due diligence, contacted the body in a bid to establish whether the clearance letter, which bore the General Secretary's signature, was legit.
It emerged that FKF had not issued the letter to the four compelling the Embassy to hold their passports pending investigations along with Kandanda House.
Players Claim Innocence
The rigmarole forced FKF to issue a, rather straightforward, statement that threw the four players under the bus as they were indicted for presenting a forged document to the Embassy through the help of an agent based abroad.
However, the players maintain that they are innocent and should not be condemned unheard even as football stakeholders continue to wait on the promised FKF's disciplinary action against the agent.
Majabe, one of the players involved, revealed that the agent, who has only been identified as Masika, gave the players the letter, which was flagged by the Embassy.
The versatile player, who secured his first Harambee Stars call-up slightly over a week ago, said he had worked with the agent for a long time such that they couldn't doubt him to forge the clearance letter.
"I had worked with him for years and I had no reason to doubt the legitimacy of the letter. Never did I imagine that it could be a fake letter as the agent is well known at FKF. We only realized it was fake when the Embassy contacted us," he told SportsBoom.com.
Majabe was backed by Ben Stanley, who said the rest of the documents submitted to the Embassy were in order safe from the FKF letter.
The midfielder, who has since joined Kakamega Homeboyz, said it wasn't their fault to submit a forged letter to the Embassy as they had trusted their agent to play his role.
"The only mistake we made was to let our agent do everything for us. We ought to have counter-checked before walking into the Embassy," the former Migori Youth star commented.
What Italian Embassy Told the Players
The two players revealed that the Embassy released their passports unconditionally but offered advice before surrendering the documents.
They disclosed that the Embassy was willing to grant them passage to Rome upon presenting a legitimate letter from FKF.
However, time was not on their side as their clubs pressured them to resume ahead of the start of the 2024-2025 season and other continental assignments.
Lessons Learnt from Foiled Move
The duo, who have since put behind the events of last month, say the lessons picked from the saga left them wiser.
Majabe, who was an unused substitute in the Stars' opening match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Zimbabwe, said, in the future, he will always scrutinize every document to avoid such an embarrassing occurrence.
"I will still work with the agent since that was not the first transfer business we were conducting or interaction. However, I will always play especially in the verification process," said the Bandari defender who also plays as a defensive midfielder.
Ben Stanley on the other hand said the transfer served as a reminder of how fast things can go south if a player is not keen on the small details.
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"Next time, I will be involved in everything just to avoid a repeat of what happened last month. Of course, human is to error but if we were keen enough, we wouldn't have missed the opportunity," said the former Sofapaka man.
Lost Opportunity Doesn't Hurt
The two, in the meanwhile believe that better opportunities are in the pipeline especially Majabe who is banking on the first national team call-up to open bigger doors.
They say they consider the lost opportunity to try luck in Italian football a thing of the past that will not dampen their hopes of making it to the professional level.
that will not dampen their hopes of making it to the professional level.
