Today we celebrate more than a football trophy. We celebrate excellence, resilience, consistency, and the power of teamwork. On behalf of the government and people of Kenya, I extend my warmest congratulations to Gor Mahia Football Club for winning the 2025-2026 FKF Premier League title.
Your record-extending 22-year league championship is a remarkable achievement that further cements your place as the most successful club in the history of Kenyan football.
The latest triumph reaffirms Gor Mahia's status as a pillar of Kenyan football excellence. For decades, this great club has set the standard for success. And by extending your record as league champions, you have once again demonstrated the enduring strength, ambition, and winning culture that defines Kogallo.
This season, Gor Mahia demonstrated the qualities of a true champion. You finished at the summit of Kenyan football through discipline, consistency, and teamwork. Your success was further reflected during the SportPesa end-of-season awards where your achievements were recognized through individual excellence, including Coach of the Season Charles Akuno and Most Valuable Player Enock Morrison. Congratulations.
These honors are a testament to the quality, leadership, and professionalism that exists throughout the club. Your journey was not easy. Only a year ago, you relinquished the title. Yet, instead of accepting disappointment, you responded with determination, discipline, and belief. You reclaimed the crown and reminded the nation why the name Gor Mahia remains synonymous with success.
I am particularly impressed by the consistency shown throughout the campaign, including crucial performances in decisive matches such as the Mashemeji Derby, which helped shape this championship-winning season. Beyond trophies and accolades, Gor Mahia continues to play a vital role in the development of Kenyan football. The club contributes the highest number of players to Harambee Stars.
You did it in the African Championships, a clear testament to your determination and commitment to nurturing talent and strengthening our national team. Your success is therefore not only a victory for your club, but also a victory for football in Kenya.
To the players, you have inspired millions of young Kenyans. To the technical bench, your leadership has produced results. To the management, your stewardship has strengthened one of Africa's greatest football institutions. Congratulations, Mr. Chairman, and your team. To the supporters, your unwavering loyalty continues to make Gor Mahia one of the most passionately followed clubs on the continent.
I also commend your sponsors, partners, and the Football Kenya Federation for their contribution towards a successful and competitive season. As champions, you now carry the hopes of our nation into the CAF Champions League. We are confident that you will represent Kenya with pride, with courage, and distinction, just as Gor Mahia has done throughout its storied history.
In 1987, as was said here by the chair, Gor Mahia achieved the pinnacle of Kenyan and East African football by winning the Africa Cup Winners' Cup, becoming the first club from our region to lift a major continental trophy. That achievement remains one of the proudest moments in the history of Kenyan football and serves as a reminder of what is possible when talent, discipline, and ambition come together.
As you embark on another continental campaign, the government of Kenya will continue to support your efforts and those of other Kenyan clubs as they seek success on the continental and regional stage. So, Salim Vurya and your team at the Ministry of Sports, Gor Mahia now becomes not just a club but a Kenyan club that will represent Kenya.
Your achievement aligns with our broader vision for sports development in Kenya. We remain committed to investing in grassroots talent development, improving sports infrastructure, professionalizing sports management, and strengthening governance across all disciplines. Our goal is to ensure that Kenyan athletes and clubs have every opportunity to compete and excel at the highest level possible. Your story reminds us that greatness is not inherited. It is earned through discipline, sacrifice, and unwavering belief in what is possible.
And I want to commend you. I mean, I have seen everything that you have done in between. I've been following, even as I do all the other things that I am doing. We are trying to do our best to give our sportsmen and women in the country the best opportunity to demonstrate their talent, and we are doing it in more than one intervention. Apart from building the stadia around the country, in fact, in the next one year, we will have completed close to 28 new stadia, including stadia in places where people may think that they are not a priority.
We are building a stadium in Garissa. We are building one in Wajir, in Mombasa, in Eldoret, in Mandera, in Kisumu, in Kakamega. We've just finished one in Bungoma. We have authorized the ministry to complete the one in Mombasa, and it is because we believe every part of Kenya has sports talent, and we do not want to leave any part of Kenya behind. Because whether it is in Mandera or in Kakamega or in Kitui, we have young people. We have people honestly pursuing their talents in sports.
And when we build a stadium, it's not just a running track and a playfield. It's more than that. It's a business ecosystem. In the stadia that we are building, we have training grounds. We will have a gym. We will have restaurants. We will have shops. We will have ICT hubs. It will be a whole commercial ecosystem that then is underpinned by a stadium. So many people, whenever they think we are building a stadium, they think we are just building a running track and a field. No, we are building a commercial ecosystem.
One that is not only going to be busy on the weekends or when there is a match. One that is going to be busy every day. There will be commercial activities with shops and restaurants and ICT hubs and all the other commercial entities. We will have conference facilities within the stadium. That way, we build a commercial ecosystem that supports sports and gives sports visibility. So I want to congratulate Gor Mahia for what you're doing, the standards of football that you are raising. Today, Kenya salutes you. Today, our nation celebrates Gor Mahia.
So, because you have come, I must salute you. You are a very good team, very humble, very modest, you know.
So, Kwanza, 100,000. Then, Chairman, I will send you another 10 million. Yeah. How we are going to support your team? But I will make sure government support. Simon, next week.
And I want to say congratulations to SportPesa and your team. We really appreciate, and I want to encourage other sponsors to support other teams and to support sports in general in Kenya, because the talent of our young people is something that we are very proud of as a nation, whether it is in sports or in athletics, in football, in cricket, in all the other sports. It is something that we celebrate as a nation. And that is why I said when I saw you lift the cup again, I said I must meet you.
So, large, extra large, different colors. That's very good. Congratulations. Congratulations, champions of Kenya, and God bless you. People came with you.
