Nairobi News

Kakamega Homeboyz Chairman Cleophas Shimanyula has fired coach John Baraza, citing a string of poor results the team has recently been posting in the Football Kenya Federation Premier League.

Interestingly, Shimanyula made the announcement on Facebook, without even mentioning the coach by name. Shimanyula faulted Baraza for failing to assert his authority on the playing unit, which had become ‘too big’ for him.

“We have made changes to the technical bench and with immediate effect, the technical director Edward Manoah and goalkeeper trainer John Wau will be in charge of the team on a temporary basis. The rest will step aside. I assure fans that plenty of positive changes are on the way and we will start winning matches soon. I ask that they be patient for a while,” Shimanyula’s post reads.

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“The decision was taken based on the performance of the team. We thank Baraza for the time he was with the team and his services,” he said.

Shimanyula promised to name a new coach next week. In the meantime, captain Moses Mudavadi will play the role of player-coach.

Baraza was appointed Kakamega Homeboyz coach on October 27 after the club parted ways with Bernard Mwalala who has since moved to Ulinzi Stars.

Despise narrowly missing out on the league title last season, Homeboyz have largely disappointed this season. On Wednesday the team lost 1-0 to Bandari at Mbaraki Sports Grounds.

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The team is currently placed eighth on the log on 21 points from 25 matches with only five wins so far. Their neighbours Nzoia Sugar tops the standing on 31 points from the same number of games.

Before joining Homeboyz, Barasa, a former Kenyan international, coached National Super League side Mara Sugar until May last year. He served as  Sofapaka head coach in the 2020/21 season but was fired midway due to a string of poor results. He has also been in charge of FKF Division Two Side Equity FC before joining Mara Sugar.

Baraza had an illustrious playing career turning out for former league champions Oserian, Tusker, Sofapaka and the now defunct Chemelil Sugar.

At the international level, the 48-year-old coach won 52 caps for the national team and netted 21 goals. He was one of the players who featured for Kenya in the 2004 African Cup of Nations where the national team was eliminated in group stage.

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