Former football administrator Ogalle recalls departed Pele’s controversial visit to Kenya
By Webster Nyandika, January 4, 2023
Veteran Kenya Soccer administrator, Mzee Steve Ogalle who served as Kenya Football Federation (KFF) Secretary General in the 1970s, has recalled the controversial visit to Kenya by the legendary Brazilian footballer the late Edison Arantes do Nascimento, popularly known as Pele.
Pele, 82, the only man to win the world Cup three times as a player in 1958, 1962 and 1970, died on Thursday in a Sao Paulo hospital after battling colon cancer.
Speaking from his Nanjekho village in Samia Sub County, Busia County, Mzee Ogalle recalled with nostalgia Pele’s visit to Kenya in February 1976, coming two years after Pele led Brazil to his last World Cup in West Germany that they failed to defend, and which was won by the host nation.
Ogalle said he was among KFF officials led by chairman Kenneth Matiba who welcomed the football icon at the airport during his tour to the country sponsored by Pepsi Cola International. Charles Mukora led the Kenya National Sports Council as the chairman.
“Mr Mukora tried very hard to bring in Coca Cola as co-sponsors but Pepsi Cola International in Kenya withdrew from that arrangement. At the VIP lounge at the airport Pele addressed a press conference,” he recalled.
He added: “ Matiba as the KFF chairman had his programme and he thought Pele should go to the City Stadium , the only then stadium in Nairobi but it failed to materialise. Since Pele was booked at the Norfolk Hotel, our chairman organised a press conference at the same hotel under the KFF banner but it was boycotted,” he said.