Back in July, Kakamega Homeboyz made history when they won their maiden piece of silverware, the FKF Cup, qualifying for next season’s CAF Confederation Cup in the process.
However, they would have won their first trophy a year earlier, and it was meant to be the big one, the league title, which to many is the be-all-and-end-all of competitions.
Under Bernard Mwalala, the club mounted a surprise title challenge and were running away with the trophy at some point, only to capitulate and let Tusker win it.
Homeboyz chairman Cleophas Shimanyula has revealed how he was ‘hurt’ by being denied a glorious chance to oversee this feat, blaming Mwalala for ‘complacency.’
“We were playing very well in 2022 and beating so many teams on the bounce,” Shimanyula told Citizen TV. “We ended up leading the league by 15 points, ahead of the likes of Gor Mahia, AFC, and Tusker,” he added.
“Things started getting bad. We had a coach named Bernard Mwalala who never wanted to listen to our warnings about being complacent but he was overconfident, saying that we were leading by 15 points and nobody would catch us.
“I told him, ‘Mwalala, if you lose three or four games, they will catch up with us just like that’ and that is exactly what happened. Tusker caught up with us and pipped us to the league on goal difference.”
The dramatic collapse left Shimanyula with no choice but to relieve Mwalala of his duties as he had fought tooth and nail to make Homeboyz a title contender.
“I was hurting inside because of this. When the season ended, I had no option but to sack him.
“There is no one who has put his heart out to help the team more than I have, keep in mind this is a community club. (So it relies on my finances mostly).”
That season, Homeboyz finished second on 66 points with a goal difference of 21, four less than Tusker’s 25. This season, they did not do well in the league, having gone through two different managers, John Baraza and Patrick Odhiambo, the latter who led the club to their maiden FKF Cup trophy.
