Marked for Evans Makari
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
A brace, and Rodgers Kipkemoi takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodgers Kipkemoi provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market12 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. APS Bomet have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market12 Jul 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at APS Bomet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at APS Bomet
Hillary Otieno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match10 Jul 2027
Kakamega Homeboyz left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KCB have kept their man, and APS Bomet go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Sven Yidah did the work nobody counts — 6.66
11 combined actions and 6.66. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.94, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
Chris Wilunda damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad10 May 2027
A fracture rules Sosthenes Idah out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason APS Bomet will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at APS Bomet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Evans Makari
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout10 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad10 May 2027
At 31 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching from the bench. Places at APS Bomet are won quietly and lost loudly.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Sosthenes Idah out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason APS Bomet will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Mar 2027
It had gone 10 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match20 Mar 2027
Posta Rangers made APS Bomet work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at APS Bomet
Sven Yidah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at APS Bomet
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edward Masembe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Harun Chemelil, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market22 Mar 2027
Maxwell Kubasu is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at APS Bomet has been clear about where Maxwell Kubasu stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2027
10 matches without a win for APS Bomet
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around APS Bomet are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Sosthenes Idah out for 94 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason APS Bomet will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at APS Bomet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Mar 2027
Kakamega Homeboyz left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Harun Chemelil left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market15 Mar 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Antony Naibei has his answer from APS Bomet; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Delton Oyo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Evans Makari dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Delton Oyo does not fit this one
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match20 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Tusker, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for APS Bomet
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market22 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at APS Bomet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Hillary Otieno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Nobody left the APS Bomet dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Harun Chemelil to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edwin Buliba, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Dec 2026
Bob Cetric hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what APS Bomet can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Hillary Otieno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 108% of the APS Bomet income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Hansel Ochieng ran the middle of the pitch — 7.19
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.19, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Morgan Ambuka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.95, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. APS Bomet had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Kariobangi Sharks leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at APS Bomet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edward Masembe is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Amos Chemelil, 14, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where APS Bomet would like this to lead.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 17 years old, Martin Kibwage became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.