Mathare United quell Kinyanjui's exit rumors

Mathare United fans can take a deep sigh of relief, at least for now as their star player James Kinyanjui will not be leaving the club immediately and will instead serve them until the end of the season.

Kinyanjui’s contract with the Slum Boys expired on Monday and he went ahead to announce that he will be leaving the club with immediate effect. Already a number of Premier League clubs are said to be keen on luring the skilful winger to their stables on the Bosman rule.

The suitors will however have to wait until the end of the season because as per the Mathare CEO Jackton Obure, Kinyanjui will only be available at the end of the current campaign.

According to Obure, they have been permitted to use the player until the end of the current season which will finish later than earlier scheduled because of the seven-week halting that was necessitated by spiralling Covid-19 infections.

“Kinyanjui is not leaving Mathare United now, he remains our player until the end of the season in fact he trained with the rest of the team this morning. As you all know, it has been a special season. Covid-19 affected sporting activities in the country and we lost two months which means the season had to be prolonged.

"We cannot afford to lose a player Kinyanjui at a time when we cannot sign a replacement. This was an unforeseen circumstance and we have been allowed to have him until the end of the season,” Obure told Mozzart Sport.

This will come as a huge boost for coach Frank Ouna who is now facing a serious relegation threat. The team is currently bottom in the FKF Premier League standings with eight points from 17 rounds of league matches. They quickly need to turn their fortunes around lest they get relegated from the FKFPL for the first time in their history.

The 22-year old started his football career at Passenga Secondary School in Nyandarua. In 2016, he led the school to the national title after beating Laiser Hill in the final. Egypt-based striker John Avire scored the lone goal of the match.

After school, he moved to Thika United in 2017. He played for the now-defunct side for two years making 48 appearances for the club. In December 2018, he decamped to Mathare United when Thika was relegated to the National Super League.

He has grown to become a key player for the Slum Boys. But just like the struggles his team is experiencing, the current campaign has been a challenging one for Kinyanjui as he has been in and out of the team often, he has scored just one goal so far this season. He is capped once with the Kenya U23 team.