Kenyan football is simmering with an unprecedented scenario – that of an institution sweeping all the trophies in Football Kenya Federation men’s and women’s competitions for top flight teams.
The National Police Service men’s (Kenya Police FC) and women’s (Kenya Police Bullets) football teams lead the standings in their respective leagues, and are also strong favourites to win the FKF Cup and the FKF Women’s Cup respectively.
Kenya Police, founded in 2014, are two matches away from hacking the order of succession in the FKF Premier League, ending the 14-year Gor Mahia-Tusker duopoly in Kenyan top flight football.
After 32 rounds of matches, Kenya Police, under the tutelage of former Burundi coach Etienne Ndayiragije, lead the 18-team league standings with 61 points and with Tusker and defending champions Gor Mahia trailing them in second and third place with 55 points and 54 points respectively, their journey to a maiden league title is far from shaking off the drama and suspense that has dominated the title race.
As they resist the siege on their league title ambitions by Tusker and Gor, Kenya Police also remain steadfast in their defence of the FKF Cup, a trophy that ushered their entry into their pantheon of Kenyan football when they won it for the first time last year.
Before that they had never won anything but now, they want to win it all and they just need to be perfect in five matches – their two remaining league matches, and the quarterfinal, the semifinal, and the final of the 2024/25 FKF Cup.
Their sister team, Kenya Police Bullets, founded in 2023 following an acquisition of Thika Queens, are also remaining with five season-defining matches. The team is one match away from defending their league title, won with an unbeaten record in their maiden top flight season.
Kenya Police's David Okoth (rght) dribbles past FC Talanta's Dennis Abiola during their FKF Premier League match on May 18, 2025 at Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos County.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
The team is coached by Harambee Starlets coach Beldine Odemba, and has lost only one league match this season.
They head into the season finale scheduled for May 25 while leading the FKF Women Premier League with 43 points, two more than their nearest challengers, Ulinzi Starlets.
Their journey to glory in the 2025 FKF Women’s Cup requires negotiating matches across the competition’s remaining three stages – quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final. Last season they fell short at semifinals stage after losing 4-2 on penalties to eventual winners Ulinzi Starlets following a 1-1 draw.
Those scenarios are not far from reflecting the statements made by the two team’s CEO, Chris Oguso, during a breakfast meeting held on June 20, 2024 in the ballroom of a five-star hotel in Nairobi.
FC Talanta's Leon Ombiji (right) vies for the ball with Kenya Police's Eric Zakayo during their FKF Premier League match on May 18, 2025 at Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos County.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
That breakfast meeting, hosted by the two teams’ patron, Interior PS Raymond Omollo, was also attended by Senior Assistant Inspector General Munga Nyale (chairman of the two teams), Bishop Fred Akama (chairman of Kenya Police FC Board of Trustees), Malkit Singh (treasurer of Kenya Police FC Board of Trustees), and other high ranking officials from the teams’ senior management committee and Board of Trustees.
In his address at that breakfast meeting, Oguso proclaimed that the two teams should have no excuse for failing to win a league and cup double this season because sufficient investment had been made to ensure their success. Oguso was quick to emphasise that during a recent interview with Nation Sport.
“We are far ahead of other teams in terms of how we plan and organise our operations. As such, there is no reason why we should not be winning trophies,” Oguso says.
“We sign the best players, hire the best coaches, and provide favourable conditions for them to perform. We pay the best salaries in the league and without delay. When our players travel for away matches, they take flights, sometimes chartered, and if accommodation is necessary, they sleep in no less than a three-star hotel. We also own our stadium (Kenya Police Saco Stadium), though we can’t use it now since it closed for renovation to support hosting of 2025 CHAN and 2027 Afcon,” he adds.
Kenya Police Starlets players celebrates their goal against Ulinzi Starlets during their FKF Women's Premier League match on February 8, 2025 at Ruaraka grounds in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation
According to Oguso, the highest paid player at Kenya Police FC earns Sh200,000 while the least takes home Sh80,000. The salary scale for the women’s team ranges from Sh20,000 to Sh100,000.
That salary structure also applies to players who are police officers, a practice which is different at other football clubs within the disciplined forces where players recruited into the respective service only earn what they are entitled to as guided by Public Service Commission salary scales for their ranks.
“Our clubs are managed independently of the National Police Service. That is why we can even sign foreign players to make our teams competitive,” Oguso says.
Additionally, players and technical staff receive a bonus of Sh5,000 for every match they win. “We do not pay bonuses for draws,” Oguso asserts.
Other bonuses that players at the club receive are based on individual performance. Scorers earn a bonus of Sh10,000 for every goal they score while assist-providers receive Sh5,000. Goalkeepers get rewarded with a Sh10,000 bonus for every clean sheet they keep.
On their own, fans of the club supplement the club’s effort in that regard by regularly raising funds to reward the player of the month for the men’s team and the player of the match for the women’s team.
“We came up with that initiative to motivate the players even more. We reward them with cash, boots, and gloves,” Arnold Munene, a staunch fan of the two teams, says.
Further, Kenya Police FC and Kenya Police Bullets provide medical cover for their players. “We treat and nurse our injured to full recovery,” Oguso says.
Munene echoes his statement, saying: “I became a Kenya Police FC fan in 2021 after I witnessed one of their former players, Kevin Mwaura, suffer an injury and have his treatment catered for by the club. You do not see that in most Kenyan clubs.”
Therefore it is not surprising that, as Oguso reveals, the budget for running the two teams is Sh110 million per year, a significant proportion of which is funded by their sponsors, Betika and DTB, and fundraisers organised by the treasurer of the Kenya Police FC Board of Trustees, Malkit Singh.
“Malkit Singh has valuable networks and connections that he leverages on to help us access extra funding for our operations. He also knows hotel owners in Mombasa and through that we get good deals for accommodation when we travel there for matches,” Oguso says.
Oguso became the CEO of Kenya Police FC in 2018 after the club’s founding coach Charles “Korea” Omondi approached him to assist him in running the club.
“Omondi was using his own resources to run the club after establishing it in 2014. In 2018, it became hard for him to continue running the team and he was contemplating disbanding it before he approached me for assistance,” Oguso says.
Omondi’s request prompted Oguso to turn to Munga Nyale, who was the pair’s instructor when they were at the National Police Training College in Kiganjo in 1996, for patronage.
At that time in 2018, Nyale was the senior principal assistant to the then Inspector General of the National Police Service, Hillary Mutyambai.
He is now Senior Assistant Inspector General and the commandant of the National Police Training College – Kiganjo.
His involvement, as Oguso shares, made it easy for the team to earn the support of the Inspector General and the Deputy IG, hence unlocking funds and resources that allowed the team to continue operating.
Following an election held at the club, Nyale soon became the chairman of Kenya Police FC as Oguso accepted the CEO position.
Omondi later stepped down as coach to take over as the stadium manager at Police Sacco Stadium. The duo, Nyale and Oguso, tapped deep into their love for football to oversee the transformation of Kenya Police FC into becoming one of the best-run and well-funded football teams in the country.
“Nyale is a football man, just like me,” Oguso, who featured for Nakuru Police together with Omondi from 1999 to 2002, says.
Under their leadership, Kenya Police FC earned promotion to the FKF Premier League in 2021 and took critical steps towards ensuring compliance with the Sports Act by forming a Board of Trustees in 2022.
“We are one of very few teams with such a structure in Kenya,” Oguso says boastfully.
In 2023, Kenya Police FC achieved another milestone in keeping up with the best industry practices by establishing a women’s team in order to meet requirements of the CAF Club Licensing regulations.
“Thika Queens was experiencing financial difficulties and after having discussions with them, we agreed to buy their slot in the FKF Women Premier League,” Oguso says.
Even though he does not disclose the amount paid to Thika Queens for their league slot, Oguso stated that buying their slot saved Kenya Police FC a lot of money as it would have been more expensive to establish a women’s team from scratch and have it rise through the pyramid to the top flight.
Kenya Police FC are now in their fourth season in the top flight since earning promotion to the FKF Premier League.
Oguso is convinced that the club is ripe for winning the league owing to the gradual improvement in their performances over the last three seasons.
“We were ninth in our first season and finished third in the two seasons that followed. Last season we won the FKF Cup, earning us the right to compete in the 2024/25 CAF Confederation Cup. This season we have recovered from a rocky start and we are now title contenders. We have no reason not to win the league this year,” Oguso says.
When Kenya Police FC earned promotion to the top flight in 2021, Oguso termed his first impression of it as “different”. “We had to level up,” he says.
Now, he and Kenya Police FC are determined to ensure that the competition is never the same again as they herald the beginning of their dominance. On other hand, Kenya Police Bullets shot to the top in their first season and do not seem in a hurry to leave.
