AFC Leopards Boss Ambani Gives Up on Kasarani Land Donated by Former President Moi
AFC Leopards chairman Boniface Ambani has thrown in the towel on the club's long-running bid to reclaim a 20-acre piece of land at Kasarani, originally donated to the club by the late former President Daniel Arap Moi back in 1992. After years of fruitless engagement with government offices, Ambani says the club must now chart its own path to securing a home ground.
Ambani painted a picture of bureaucratic stonewalling during the club's annual general meeting held at Nyayo Stadium on Sunday. He revealed that he personally visited the Survey office alongside the secretary general to try and pin down the exact location of the donated parcel. "While documents show that the land does indeed exist, nobody is willing to show you where it exists exactly," he said, capturing the maddening nature of the ordeal.
Beyond the paperwork maze, the physical reality on the ground has made the situation even more complicated. Much like their fierce rivals Gor Mahia, who have faced a near-identical predicament, squatters have moved onto portions of the Kasarani land and put up unauthorized structures. This encroachment has turned what was meant to be a generous gift into a legal and logistical headache for the Ingwe faithful.
Rather than continue pouring energy into what increasingly looks like a dead end, Ambani is urging the club's stakeholders to look forward. He called on supporters, investors and members to come together and pool resources to independently acquire alternative land — a plot that AFC Leopards can call their own without relying on the goodwill of the state.
Ambani made it clear that the club should no longer be counting on government promises to build its future. "We should have our own where we can build," he stated, signaling a decisive shift toward a more self-reliant approach to infrastructure development. The sentiment resonated strongly among fans who have long dreamed of seeing Leopards own a dedicated stadium.
The land question has haunted AFC Leopards for decades, and Sunday's AGM marks a definitive turning point in how the club intends to tackle it. Whether Ingwe can galvanize the resources needed to acquire an alternative property remains to be seen, but Ambani's public stance signals that the era of waiting on promises made more than thirty years ago is firmly over. For Kenyan football fans, the hope now rests on whether Leopards can translate this new resolve into bricks and mortar.