AFC Leopards goalkeeper Levis Opiyo (top) vies for the ball with Gor Mahia's Benson Omala during their Football Kenya Federation Premier League match on May 14, 2023 at Nyayo National Stadium.
International call-up and AFC Leopards number one goalkeeper, Levis Opiyo, recently caused a stir in local football when he claimed that some people are using black magic on him affecting his level of play particularly when he faces Gor Mahia.
In a video that was shared widely in football circles last week, Opiyo claims that there was someone he was close to during his days with Gor Mahia, who was now using witchcraft on him, in the Mashemeji derbies.
The 29-year-old shot-stopper, who has featured in five Mashemeji derbies, has consistently made costly errors in these fixtures.
The international goalkeeper alleged supernatural forces were to blame for his performance against his former club from the time he joined Leopards from Wazito FC in 2021.
Ingwe fans have called him out for A costly mistake in 2023 FKF-PL first-leg match against Gor at MISC, Kasarani, allowing Benson Omala to lop the ball over him.
He made another big blunder in the second leg at Nyayo National Stadium in April this year, gifting Austine Odhiambo the decisive goal.
Opiyo was dispossessed when he tried to dribble past two Gor Mahia players, with the former AFC Leopards man firing home what proved to be the winner.
AFC Leopards goalkeeper Levis Opiyo reacts during a Football Kenya Federation Premier League match against arch rivals Gor Mahia at Nyayo National Stadium. Nairobi on April 21, 2024.
In June, 2022, Opiyo gifted Gor Mahia the equalising goal in the Mashemeji derby that marked the 59th Madaraka Day celebrations. Odhiambo was the beneficiary after Collins Shivachi had given Ingwe the lead. Gor went on to with the match through penalties.
Opiyo sensationally claimed there was someone at Gor Mahia he has noticed for a while, and he’s prepared for him now.
“I won’t go into details about what he does, but we’re aware. Our (Leopards) stewards had seen him, and God has revealed to me what he’s been doing.
“When I played for Gor Mahia, we were close friends. But it’s like he’s affecting me from the sidelines using black magic. Every time I play in a derby, I feel unusually weak, and it only happens in those games,” said Opiyo in the video.
Opiyo claimed the Gor Mahia steward, a former close friend of his, ensures that they greet each other before the game and that he always walks behind him from the tunnel.
He assured AFC Leopards fans that this year’s Mashemeji derbies will be different.
The two sworn rivals will meet for the first time this season on November 24 in their first leg FKF Premier League fixture.
Attention will certainly also be on Opiyo and how he fields.
“We have told Opiyo to be professional and focus on his football and work hard,” AFC Leopards chairman Dan Shikand said while dismissing the juju talk.
However Opiyo’s observations brings into focus the unspoken use of juju - magical powers by some teams to influence the outcome of their matches.
In Kenya, especially in the 1960s to 1990s, clubs and players were known for getting involved in the unholy act in one way or the other.
Teams like giants AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia believed that West Africa and North African teams had superior and advanced witchcraft and that was why they were more successive on continental tournaments.
A former AFC Leopards international midfielder, who did not want to be named, revealed to this writer that when he joined Leopards in the early 1980s, juju use by players was common.
He claims they used witchcraft to try to outshine their teammates and to develop their careers much faster.
They also believed in juju treatment when injured or to cause other players other players suffer injuries or woeful loss of form.
“Donning a uniform by being in the squad of 17. One had made a big achievement. If you were in the starting lineup, especially during a derby, one was on top of the world for representing the whole Luhya community. The fight to make the team was intense,” he said.
Gor Mahia player, Peter Ouma “Pele” once testified that an hour before leaving for the stadium for a Mashemeji derby, their boots would be collected for the ‘research’ men to do their work.
City Stadium would be guarded the by the home team stewards to prevent any suspected person planning to plant charms on the pitch.
Any suspected person seen in the vicinity would be chased and roughed by the home team scouts guarding the ground.
Former Leopards utility Peter Lichungu, who played in the 1980s and 1990s, did not believe in those practices, but remembers a team mate who was seriously injured by a Re-Union player for what the juju man claimed was failure to follow the instructions.
“I remember we could be ordered by our scouts to enter the stadium with our backs facing the entrance,” he added.
To date, a section of AFC Leopards’ fans still believe that an Ingwe delegation should travel to Tanzania and apologise to their former coach, Sunday Kayuni, who guided the club to their last league title in 1998.
Kayuni was sacked the following year after a failed Cecafa Club Championship campaign in Uganda.
In later years, the Tanzanian coach said the reason AFC Leopards have never won a Premier League title since 1998 was because of the manner he left the club.
Kayuni was fired by then chairman, the late Francis Chahonyo, and detained by a hotel along Ngong Road because the club had not settled his hotel bills.
When he insisted on being paid his dues, some Leopards officials arranged for him to be arrested and detained in a police cell for two days before he was rescued by the Tanzanian High Commissioner. He was never paid his dues by Ingwe, or so he claimed
Kayuni, in an interview with goal.com in 2019, said he had cursed AFC Leopards and they would never win a league title again until they apologise for mistreating him and pay him his dues.
Indeed, AFC Leopards has seen little success since Kayuni’s ugly dismissal.
The were relegated from the Premier League in 2006 before bouncing back in 2009.
The closest Ingwe have come to winning the Kenyan championship since 1998 was in 2013 when they finished second, 10 points behind winners Gor Mahia.
Shikanda says they do not believe in any talk of curses or black magic and that Leopards is a modern outfit that will strive to win the league on merit on the pitch.
