Coach Jan Koops at his rented house in Busia on October 27, 2024.
From Busia town bus stop, take a motorbike and travel one kilometre back on the Kisumu-Busia road, and branch off to the left at Texas Annex Hotel. I will be standing on the balcony, so just come down the murram road, and I will see you,” Jan Koops, former coach of 12-time Kenyan football league champions AFC Leopards, tells me on the phone.
Battling a debilitating disease, the Dutchman who arrived in Kenya on coaching expedition 15 years ago, has visibly slowed down due to advanced age. He sounds withdrawn, forlorn and melancholic on the phone.
“Sometimes the pain is unbearable, sometimes not very bad. Today I couldn’t sleep,” the 83-year-old says, struggling to find the right English words to describe his failing health.
It is 7pm and I have just arrived in Busia by the evening bus from Nairobi, settled down in a hotel, and ventured out to Gitonga’s to get my bearings, and to clear my mind. In Busia, Koops is simply known as “Mzungu coach”.
If you ask for direction to his house from the patrons at Gitonga’s, the fruit vendors on the streets, or motorcyclists whiling away time at the bus stop, they will point you in the direction of Koops’ house with their noses and say “down there”.
The next morning, I arrive at Texas Annex Hotel. Metres down the murram road at Victory in Legio Estate, Koops is beckoning from the balcony of his rented house on the first floor of a four-story building. Caroline Awinja, a neighbour whom Koops fondly calls ‘Mum’ stays on the opposite end of the flat with her own family.
Coach Jan Koops shows wounds on his leg at his rented house in Busia on October 27, 2024.
“I have a heart problem, and I can’t live without a pacemaker. I have been seen by many cardiologists, and they say I need a new pacemaker to replace the one I was fitted with 20 years ago. I can’t afford it, but AFC Leopards owe me money. I have reached out to the club’s chairman Dan Shikanda,but he has not responded to my e-mails, phone calls, and text messages,” Koops says, showing me a text message he sent to Mr Shikanda on September 21.
A pacemaker is a small, battery-powered device that regulates the heart's rhythm and rate by sending electrical pulses to the heart. It works in place of the heart's natural pacemaker, the sinus node, which generates electrical impulses that set the heart's normal rhythm.
Koops, who came to Kenya in 2009 on a coaching expedition after falling in love with the country during a past visit, has festering wounds on the ankle and shin of his right foot, and has considerably slowed down.
Having suffered heart failure in the past, doctors in Germany fitted a pacemaker to the right of his heart in 2004 to stabilise his heartbeat and pulse rate, and to stop attacks of fatigue.
The particular type of pacemaker fitted in Koops’ heart was to be replaced after six to eight years, but Koops has stayed with the device for 20 years. He has unsuccessfully sought audience with Shikanda to get part of Sh9.07 million the club owes him in unpaid salary from 14 years ago.
His veins are also failing, leading to wounds on his lower limbs, but he can’t be treated for this before getting a new pacemaker. In the words of his doctor, Koops is suffering from venous insufficiency and heart failure.
Without factoring in interest accrued, Koops says AFC Leopards owes him Sh1.3 million from his first contract at the club, and Sh5.398 million from his second contract.
Money from his first contract alone is enough to pay for a new pacemaker at a public health facility, but it has remained a pie in the sky as Shikanda has failed to respond to any form of communication from the ailing coach.
Mr Shikanda has been seen publicly campaigning for a candidate for the Football Kenya Federation presidency.
But how did things get here?
Coach Jan Koops at his rented house in Busia on October 27, 2024.
Born in 1941 in the Netherlands, Koops played semi-professional football in the Dutch second-tier football league as a 14-year-old, then briefly joined top-tier PEC Zwolle, who are currently 14th in the 18-team Dutch Eredivisie.
Jan Koops (left) and Mickey Weche on July 27, 2011.
His career didn’t flourish as a striker, and he left to pursue coaching. He attained ‘Category C’ KNVB coaching license from the Dutch national football federation, but what appears to have been a departure from football, he took up employment as manager of a pharmaceutical company in the Netherlands, then left for Germany to co-found a business with a friend.
While in Germany, he took up coaching at fourth-tier football team Vichstal, a job he did till 2009.
It is during his time in Germany that he suffered heart failure in 2004, and was fitted with a pacemaker. His marriage had ended in a divorce in 1995, and he has lost communication with his two sons – 37-year-old Tom Koops, who works in a media company in the Netherlands, and 44-year-old Peela Koops.
Koops arrived in Kenya in 2009, and signed a two-year coaching contract with AFC Leopards from September 1, 2011 to December 1, 2013 on a salary of Sh110,000.
Nicknamed ‘Wepukhulu’ by the club’s fans, Koops took over from coach Nick Yakhama and immediately became a darling of the club’s fans and guided the team to two top four finishes in the league over the period.
Coach Jan Koops at his rented house in Busia on October 27, 2024.
The club only paid him for 17 months, and still owes him 10-month salary totalling Sh 1.1 million. As per the contract, the money has earned an annual interest of Sh729,000, translating into Sh1.892 million.
Koops signed a second two-year contract with the club from January 4, 2016 to January 4, 2018 for a monthly salary of Sh250,000. AFC Leopards terminated the contract on August 1, 2016 because the club couldn’t afford his salary.
Koops claims he is owed Sh5.398 million, but the figure rises to Sh7.125 million after factoring in an annual interest of eight percent. From both contracts, he is owed Sh9.017 million.
After the club terminated his second contract, he was appointed the club’s technical director and head of youth development.
The club owes him Sh1.35 million from this last engagement. Out of employment and depending only on pension from Dutch and German governments, Koops relocated to Mumias in 2020, where he stayed in a guest house.
With the help of friends, he later moved to Busia, where he currently stays.
Although he could take legal action and sue AFC Leopards at the Sports Disputes Tribunal, and at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or report the club to African football governing body, CAF, or world football body, Fifa with dire consequences, Koops maintains he doesn’t want to antagonise the club.
“Although I have contacted lawyers, I don’t want to drag the club through the courts. If the club can pay for my pacemaker, that will be fine. I want the club to pay me Sh1.892 million from my first contract in four instalments of Sh473,000. That way, I can get life-saving treatment,” he says.
Coach Jan Koops (right) and his neighbour Caroline Awinja at Awinja's house in Busia on October 27, 2024. P
Nation Sport made many unsuccessful attempts to get Shikanda’s comments over five days. The other senior executives were unavailable for comment. Initially, Shikanda promised to return our calls, but later ignored all reminders.
“It would be fair if AFC Leopards realised the seriousness of the matter and gave me a response rather than keep quiet,” Koops, who has written a book on football, but which is yet to be published, said.
Koops spends his time in the company of the family of Awinja, a lady pastor who runs Earthrite Zion Church with her husband Peter Zadock in Teso, Bungoma County.
“We were told Koops was looking for a place to stay, and we welcomed him to this flat to be our neighbour. As our neighbour, we have been very close to him as a family even in sickness. I appeal to his former employer to come to his aid, and government officials to know that he is ailing. He has no family in Kenya, and is not interested in going back home,” Awinja says.
Koops has seen medical specialists at Busia County Referral Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Lifecare Hospital in Bungoma, Plaza Imaging Hospital in Busia, and at the Nairobi Hospital.
