After finishing the previous campaign in sixth position with 51 points from 34 matches, Ingwe ushered in a new era led by legendary Boniface Ambani, who replaced Dan Shikanda. The latter was in charge for eight years across two terms, but never won a major trophy, for a team ranked among the best in East Africa.
A former AFC Leopards striker, Ambani won the election on June 29th, 2025, with 1,101 votes, defeating his opponent, Evans Enos Mutoka. His new administration, which will serve a four-year term, included Isaac Mulindi as secretary general and Newton Lime as treasurer.
However, despite the changes, Ingwe’s poor start to the campaign continued unabated after they settled for a 0-0 draw against Bandari FC at the Kasarani Stadium on Tuesday. Going into the fixture, AFC Leopards had failed to win their previous two matches, securing a 1-1 draw against Sofapaka in the season opener, and a 2-2 draw against Posta Rangers.
Against the Dockers from Mombasa, Ingwe struggled to break them down, with their only chance of the game falling to Ugandan import Samuel Sseeyonjo, but he failed to hit the target. After the final whistle, agitated AFC Leopards fans gathered around the team bus demanding answers for the poor start to the season.
It needed the intervention of armed Kenyan Police officers to quell the situation and escort the team out of the match venue under tight security. Several fans chanted the slogan ‘Ambani must go’, while others called for the management to overhaul the entire team and give it a fresh start.
‘I ask for forgiveness from fans’
“We are not happy with the draw, this is not a good result for the team, putting in my mind we have been struggling to get these three points, and we haven’t managed to get them, so it has not been easy, and I feel the pain fans are going through,” an emotional Ambani told Flashscore.
“We came into this game with a different formation in the first half, a formation we have not used this season, we wanted to try and see if it can work, but it didn’t and that is why we resorted to our usual format, style of play, it is something we wanted to see if it can work.”
He added: “We haven’t picked good results from previous two matches, so we are trying every means possible to get a positive result, and I want to admit in the first half, we played really bad game, we struggled a lot, but at least in the second half, we came back into the game, and the players played according to instructions.
“We started to use those wide areas but created chances which we couldn’t convert, but honestly a draw does not reflect our doubled efforts in the second half.”
Ambani confident Ingwe will roar again
Ambani, who is the brother of the chairman, took his time to plead with AFC Leopards to remain patient as he tries to work out the winning formula. He further went ahead to tell the fans that Ingwe will win the next game.
“At first I think our fans have really been patient enough, and I kindly request them to remain patient because there is nothing else we can do, they are our fans, we don’t have any other fans, but on behalf of the team, I ask for forgiveness from the fans, for what happened today (Wednesday),” he explained.
“I can only promise them that things will be alright soon. We hope we can win the next game, we can do it for the fans.”
The third consecutive draw left AFC Leopards sitting 15th on the 18-team league table, just one place above the relegation zone. Meanwhile, Bandari, under new Moroccan coach Mohamed Borji, moved up to eighth with five points accumulated from one win, two defeats, and one draw.
With the league postponed to allow the mourning of former Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who doubled as the club patron for Kenyan record champions Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards will take a break from action before their next fixture against Shabana FC on Sunday, October 26th.
