It’s one thing to stage a 32-match undefeated streak in what many consider Kenya’s toughest division. It’s another to win it with a double digit difference adrift of your closest competitor, and keep tremendous distance against names such as: Kariobangi Sharks, KCB, Zoo, Vihiga United, Nakumatt, Wazito and FC Talanta.It then is an entirely different thing to earn entry into the Kenyan top flight, and with your welcoming fixture as the league’s defending champions, whip them for five.Seven years later, it shouldn’t be a surprise if you dare compete for the title, assumedly having learnt the ins and outs of the top flight. But with a very lean squad and budget, how dare you?If you are Nzoia Sugar Football Club, all of the above are possible.Nzoia Sugar officially relegated to National Super LeagueNzoia Sugar FC will play it’s last premier league match away to Sofapaka FC on the 23rd of June, the sugar millers bowing out of their seven-and-a-half year engagement with Kenya’s top flight, yet in between- a few barriers broken, an abundance of spontaneous talent, and a resilience of spirit yet to be replicated anywhere, all factors considered.Coach Mike Muiruri’s entry midway through the season did little to salvage a ship that had, even before the 2023/24 season, begun to shoot itself in the foot.It did come as a surprise to the Sudi faithful though.Having recorded their best season yet (since finishing second to Oserian in 2002), news that the club would be disbanded citing depleted finances fell heavy on many Sudi faithful.The idea of not having premier league afternoons on Sundays was just that, an idea, and one that was least of the sugar millers’ worries.After all, they had just finished fifth on the log, having given a spirited chase for the title up until the penultimate round of the campaign.The boys had made Sudi proud. And then they left.As Nzoia Sugar bids goodbye to the Kenyan Premier League, we look at some of the players who either came into the limelight or revived their careers at Nzoia Sugar FC. These players are currently playing for other FKF Premier League clubs.Gor MahiaBoniface Omondi, Kevin… pic.twitter.com/9RK5FxpvfZ— Ole Teya (@TeyaKevin) May 20, 2024 Nzoia Sugar has never shied away from releasing its top of the batch talent to other financially astute clubs, in fact, one can argue that over their seven year engagement with the top flight, they are the team with the most old boys spread across different clubs.And by old boys I mean players who made their bones here or, having been thought of well past their prime, revived their careers here.Pre-2023/24 season, however, is a special case considering that even the ball-playing coach Salim Babu also left.More than half the team would follow.Kevin Juma, Joseph Mwangi, James Kibande, Humphrey Katasi, Randy Bakari, Vincent Mahiga, Boniface Munyendo, Brian Yakhama, Hassan Beja, Kevin Maliachi, Yassin Sije and Alfred Tanui are key figures whose absence evidently made a difference.The club, perhaps banking on its tried and tested scouting potential, might have brushed this massive exodus off, but even they knew, somewhere deeply, that replacing an entire playing unit in the Kenyan top flight and hoping to stay afloat was a long shot.##NAJAVA_MECA_8117211##Relegation to the national super league has been earned, no questions about it, whether from a reckless transfer activity or a diminishing goodwill from the club sponsor Nzoia Sugar Company. Either way, the 2022/23 season could have been the flight too close to the sun.Nzoia’s drop down means western province remains with just one club at the top – Kakamega Homeboyz.Vihiga United and Vihiga Bullets, ever since dropping down, have shown little, if any, intent of scaling back up.Luanda Villa stay mid-table in the NSL, but gradually fitting in.The millers’ fall speaks largely of a steady drop in the quality of football among western-based clubs, perhaps larger than initially thought of.Southwards of Sudi, Kisumu All Stars still linger in the second tier, unable to rise back.In the top flight, Muhoroni Youth and Shabana keep Nzoia company in the relegation zone, and when the sugar millers play their penultimate game on the 19th of June, it is Muhoroni who will come calling.If either of Shabana or Muhoroni join Nzoia in the second tier, the larger western region will have a total of eight teams in the second tier, and just two (assuming Mara Sugar climb up) in the top tier. An acute downgrade from the time the region had well up to seven teams in the FKF PL.The argument that top players from teams in this region are always head-hunted by superior and more moneyed clubs from the capital bears little to no significance.Kakamega Homeboyz played a fantastic 2020/21 Premier League campaign only losing the title on the final day to Tusker.More recently, Nzoia’s band of then unknown trail blazers, seemingly picking lessons from Homeboyz, went one better; stayed in the title chase up until the last minute, and with a unit of players whose portfolios started and ended with Nzoia Sugar.Homeboyz, it can be argued, had done it with a few well-traveled individuals.Nzoia Sugar face another fight to keep their top talentsNot every team in the capital basks in some sort of financial cushion.There are clubs known to operate on lean budgets too, but have mastered the art of staying up, grasping onto that top flight spot like their lives depend on it.For football stakeholders in western region, therefore, a serious sit-down is well in order and reversed priorities properly addressed. The electioneering period is here and if there’s hope for any revival, it is here that a real turnaround begins.Whilst taking nothing from Nzoia’s men and women who have been in charge, the club’s seven year impact in the top flight and even abroad is indelible.Players moulded here have gone on to win the premier league title, the domestic cup, the FKF Shield, and even played in the prestigious CAF competitions with their current employers.They still command starting places at these outfits.It’s seven years since Brian Otieno scored a brace, sandwiched between Elvis Rupia, Edwin Wafula and Boniface Omondi’s goals as Nzoia edged then champions Tusker 5-2 at the Afraha stadium on match day one of the 2017 premier league season.Coached by current KCB manager Bernard Mwalala, a 32-match unbeaten streak, an NSL championship title, and subsequent promotion into the top flight is what many Sudi faithful would want to remember of the team that brought back fond memories of a club they hold dear.The second tier has tremendously changed since they last played here; a home tie against Kariobangi Sharks on the final day of the 2017 NSL season.A few clubs, at the time toddlers when Nzoia dominated the league, have since risen from the lower divisions to play in the NSL; Sudi awaits.There is no telling when the sugar millers might grace the top flight again.Ksh 10 Million or more enough to get Nzoia Sugar back to FKFPL – MokuaThe assumption is they have done it before and might just do it again.But a lot of time has passed. It will at first look like an inexplicable domain, like going back to school to re-sit your final year papers many years after.Nzoia will find newer faces, teams from the central region, some no more than a decade old, have proved their mettle in their separate gradual rises to the second tier- and with immense home backing reminiscent of their own Sudi backyard.Their own western territory is another fresh burden. Nearly half of the NSL clubs hail from the larger western region, hence the limits of loyalties will be fiercely tested.So Nzoia enters the cold once more, battle-hardened, wearied and perhaps seeking rest. A nap is good, rest is always good- but Sudi waits, and hopes that it’s just for a season.
