The new SportPesa Premier League season was supposed to mark a fresh chapter for Gor Mahia. After the heartbreak of the 2024/25 campaign , losing the FKF Cup final to a second-tier NSL side and surrendering the league title to a club that had never won it before , fans were eager to turn the page. With a revamped squad that featured five new signings who had starred at the recent CHAN tournament, excitement was in the air.

The CHAN tournament had raised the bar. Hosted successfully in Kenya just a month ago, it delivered ‘world-class’ organization, seamless e-ticketing, and efficient stadium logistics. Over ten Gor Mahia players had been part of the national team setup, and the experience left fans hungry to see similar standards at club level.

But when Gor Mahia hosted Bidco United in their opening match of the 2025/26 season, everything that could go wrong did. What should have been a joyous return to football turned into a chaotic embarrassment.

Earlier in the week, the club had reiterated its commitment to e-ticketing, part of what it described as “a broader bid to modernize operations and rebuild trust after a disastrous 2024/25 season.” But on matchday, that promise collapsed under the weight of poor planning, inexperience, and negligence.

For reasons yet to be fully explained, Gor Mahia partnered with a relatively unknown ticketing firm , crucially, lacked even basic infrastructure. Fans immediately raised concerns about the firm’s capacity, but these were dismissed by club officials. The result: logistical paralysis.

Unlike CHAN, where no tickets were sold at the gates, Gor Mahia allowed same-day sales. By kickoff, ticket sales were still ongoing, with fans arriving at Kasarani Stadium expecting an orderly process of security checks and ticket validation ,just like during CHAN. Instead, they found a single overcrowded entry point with no structured verification system.

It was a disaster in the making.

With only one verification point, chaos erupted. Fans pleaded with RDU officers to intervene and contact club officials to open more gates and deploy more staff. But there were no Gor Mahia official at the gate and the ticketing firm was severely understaffed. Shockingly, only one Lady had been assigned to verify tickets, scanning QR codes on her phone and tying blue ribbons around fans’ wrists ; a bizarre practice no one had seen before.

The situation quickly spiraled. The crowd swelled, pushing and shoving intensified, and fears of a stampede grew. In desperation, the police fired teargas to disperse the crowd. Children inhaled the gas, fans panicked, some broke barriers and jumped over fences, others gave up and left , all victims of a verification process that simply didn’t exist.

It was only after public outrage spilled over onto social media that action was finally taken. With barely 20 minutes to kickoff, three more gates were opened. But by then, verification was completely abandoned. The ticketing staff had resorted to checking M-Pesa confirmation messages ; not for the validity of the purchase, but simply for the sake of appearing organized. It became clear that a single message could have been forwarded to dozens of fans.

From that point, fans streamed in smoothly, but at a great cost. Revenue collection was compromised, and the experience left a bitter taste in the mouths of those who had hoped for a new beginning.

The principle of e-ticketing isn’t in question , it is clearly the future. But execution matters. A club of Gor Mahia’s stature should never outsource such a critical operation to an unproven firm with no scanners, no manpower, and no emergency protocol.

Worse still is the club’s failure to educate its supporters. Many fans aren’t tech-savvy, and communication via social media alone is not enough. Branch leaders, fan engagement, and proper civic education are essential. Otherwise, ticketing will continue to be a flashpoint.

Football should be a family experience. The kind of scenes witnessed yesterday; children crying, fans injured, the ‘senior citizens ‘ choking on teargas are enough to keep families away from stadiums for good.

Worse still, such chaos now risks more than just bad press. It could lead to the club being banned from using key Sports Kenya facilities like Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. With the government keen to protect stadium infrastructure ahead of the country’s co-hosting of AFCON 2027, repeat incidents could see Gor Mahia locked out of top-tier venues , a move that would further isolate the club and punish its loyal fanbase for management’s repeated failures.