What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at APS Bomet can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at APS Bomet is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sven Yidah 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Morgan Ambuka, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Brian Buleti
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Brian Buleti has come out of that comparison in the side, and APS Bomet have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Curtis Wekesa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Morgan Ambuka signs something — a contract at APS Bomet or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 15 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Nobody at APS Bomet is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at APS Bomet can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match4 Sep 2027
Curtis Wekesa wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Curtis Wekesa found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Mara Sugar went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around APS Bomet they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at APS Bomet until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything agreed with Mara Sugar, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Sven Yidah 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Curtis Wekesa. 2‑1 against Mara Sugar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsThe game went through Sven Yidah — 6.81
Position 16 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Evans Kipkemoi was one of the reasons people came, and $40.0K does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Sofapaka for Hillary Wandera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
APS Bomet asked and Mathare United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mara Sugar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at APS Bomet is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Bob Cetric has agreed terms with KCB for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. APS Bomet lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at APS Bomet is running low.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. APS Bomet lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 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.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at APS Bomet is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. APS Bomet lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 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.
“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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at APS Bomet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Naibei 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around APS Bomet they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. APS Bomet lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
1‑3 to Bandari, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 Apr 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 1‑3 Peter Mukangula left the room before anybody could ask which.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Timothy Amuka, 15, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at APS Bomet is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Edward Masembe 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Timothy Amuka and APS Bomet agree another 3 years.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Antony Naibei falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at APS Bomet is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hansel Ochieng. 2‑0 against Posta Rangers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Evans Mwirigi 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. APS Bomet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 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.
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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout15 Feb 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 2‑3 Peter Mukangula left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antony Naibei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Brian Owusu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Evans Mwirigi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around APS Bomet the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at APS Bomet until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Sven Yidah 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.
Mathare United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Sven Yidah takes the afternoon — 8.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sven Yidah provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Sosthenes Idah, marked 7.54, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Peter Mukangula chose the glass-half-full version of 3‑3; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Curtis Wekesa
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Peter Mukangula was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the APS Bomet dressing room was either.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Sven Yidah 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Peter Mukangula was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the APS Bomet dressing room was either.
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.
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, APS Bomet have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the APS Bomet squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bandari have kept their man, and APS Bomet go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.