Homeboyz

Kakamega sits in Kenya's Western region, sugar-cane country with little claim on the national game before 2010, when Cleophas Shimanyula, a transport magnate known locally as 'Toto' who built his money running matatu fleets, put a club together and gave the town a top-flight side of its own. KHomeboyz, as they are known, took the yellow and green that still mark them out at Bukhungu Stadium.

The early years were unsteady: promotion to the Kenyan Premier League followed the 2012 Division One title, and relegation came the same season. They found their way back, and by 2019/2020 were pushing for the championship itself, finishing runners-up without ever taking the title.

The club's defining afternoon came in 2023, when they beat Tusker FC 1–0 in the FKF Cup final, Kevin Amwayi scoring the goal that settled it. Moses Shummah, a young striker who was named the final's most valuable player, earned a Harambee Stars call-up on the strength of that form. The cup win sent Kakamega into continental football for the first time, into the CAF Confederation Cup and a tie against Al Hilal Benghazi of Libya.

Locally, the fixture that matters is the Ingo Derby against AFC Leopards, Western Kenya against Nairobi, a rivalry that runs on geography as much as history. Gor Mahia and Tusker supply the other regular tests. Through it all, the club has stayed Shimanyula's: the man who saw a town without a club and decided it should have one.