Kakamega is humming with song, color and competitive edge as the region’s best young athletes assemble for the FEASSSA Games 2025. From the fresh sheen of Bukhungu’s new turf to the packed school compounds doubling as arenas, this is a tournament stitched together by pride, perseverance and a few early plot twists that already hint at a classic edition.
A homecoming with a few bumps and a bigger stage
Kenya’s return as host has drawn high expectations after the last home edition in 2016. The programme is sprawling, with 16 core disciplines and the debut of beach soccer, plus demonstration events that include cricket, beach volleyball, chess, scrabble, lacrosse and dancesport. Venues across Kakamega County, among them Bukhungu Stadium, MMUST grounds, Kakamega High School and Mukumu Boys, have swung into action.
The curtain lifted with disruption and determination in equal measure. The opening ceremony was moved to Friday to accommodate President William Ruto, and fixture reshuffles left some teams waiting, even as guest sides from Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana joined the East African cast. By the time the whistle finally blew, the competition’s heartbeat was unmistakable, loud and restless.
Hockey powers rise from patience and pain
Few projects in the region carry the quiet conviction of St. Charles Lwanga Changamwe. Under coach Julius Masero, the Mombasa school has spent 13 years building an academy of intent, winning the Coast Region title eight times, collecting national bronze three times, and finishing East Africa runners-up in 2024. Masero’s side opened with a 2 to 1 win over Mbarara, a result that felt like another brick laid in a sturdy wall.
Masero speaks of discipline and data. He reminds anyone who will listen that Lwanga conceded in only one of 14 matches heading to nationals, then looks at the bigger picture, where former pupils dot the Kenya Hockey Union Premier League, from Daikyo Heroes to Western Jaguars. It is the story of a region once doubted that is now a feeder to the national game, and it gives their Kakamega mission teeth.
| CASINO | BONUS | INFO | RATING | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
bonus
1st deposit bonus
See 11 Bonuses
|
info
20+ crash & instant games, Aviator bonuses BK 0000704 |
|
||
|
bonus
Welcome Bonus Package – Up to 225% + 100 FS
See 4 Bonuses
|
info
Large welcome bonus, crypto-friendly, huge provider list. No. 1668/JAZ |
|
||
|
bonus
10% sportsbook refund
See 7 Bonuses
|
info
20+ software providers, Aviator+ other crash games, BK 0000671 PG 0000428 |
|
||
|
bonus
Register for up to 31,400 KSH bonus on deposits!
See 10 Bonuses
|
info
No. ALSI-112310012-F15 Unique selection of slots & games |
|
Tigoi girls turn regret into ruthlessness
On the girls’ side, Tigoi Girls High School landed in Kakamega with back-to-back KSSSA titles and a promise to themselves. Twice they came close to the East African crown, last year falling short against St. Joseph’s Girls Kitale. This time their intent was unmistakable, a 9 to 0 opening rout of Bweranyangi that had coach Moses Erima pleased with the points but demanding sharper finishing.
Erima has rebuilt Tigoi around depth, not stardom, and leaned on the KHU league exposure several of his players carry. He talks about learning from a painful 2024 and the advantage of home support, a blend that makes Tigoi a measured, motivated force. It is not bravado, it is a progression plan unfolding under pressure.
Mwiki girls seize the spotlight
The Nairobi upstarts from Mwiki Secondary are the freshest face in this hockey chorus. Founded only six years ago, they used a policy that sent the top four national finishers to Kakamega, and they have made their chance count, beating Namagunga 4 to 2 on Day One. Teacher-coach Peter Mwathe traces the spark to 2018 and a transfer that brought hockey know-how into a public school that had never fielded sticks.
Mwiki’s girls play year-round in the KHU Women’s Super League, learning to solve problems mid-game and carrying that composure into schools’ hockey. Their goals are blunt and beautiful, win at FEASSSA now, put players into the national team later, and turn a sub-county school into a pipeline for talent. In Kakamega, they do not look lost, they look hungry.
Football finds its narratives under the lights
At Bukhungu, the first competitive kick in more than six months christened the resurfaced pitch with high drama. Highway, Kenya’s 2024 national champions, fell 3 to 1 to Rwanda’s CGFK, a reminder that reputations travel only as far as your next touch in this tournament. The ball zipped on the new artificial turf, the Rwandans pressing with poise and punishing mistakes.
The defending boys’ champions from Musingu needed a reboot after a tough national semifinal, and they found it. Kelvin Mukaramoja’s winner secured a 1 to 0 victory over Kizuka, and, as revealed by Mozzart Sport, it unlocked a Ksh100,000 pledge per win that Senator Boniface Khalwale had dangled before kickoff. The roar in the stands sounded like belief turning into currency, one tidy finish at a time.
Newcomers learn fast and embrace the moment
Butere Boys earned their seat at the table as host county champions and marked their first FEASSSA appearance with a measured 0 to 0 draw against Kizuka. Coach Bousted Mukolwe saw stage fright more than structural flaws, and promised a response. On another pitch, reigning champions Amus College stumbled 1 to 0 against Buddo, while Bukedea Comprehensive beat St. Mary’s Kitende 2 to 1, proof that Uganda’s depth remains a moving target.
In girls’ football, Madira and Butere were held on opening day. Butere drew 0 to 0 with Amus after late schedule shifts, and the staff pointed to the psychological knock of a kickoff moved from morning to afternoon. Madira, brave and tidy in possession, split the points with Kawempe, their intent clear despite the stalemate.
The champions and the chasers
Context matters here. In 2024, Musingu and St. Joseph’s Girls Kitale were hockey’s gold standard, and both arrived as defending champions. This time, St. Joseph’s began with a 0 to 0 draw against Ng’iya Girls, while Musingu’s boys were tripped 1 to 0 by Kakungulu in their opener, a jolt that will test the mettle of any title defense.
Elsewhere, Kenya’s Vihiga High edged Namilyango 20 to 15 in rugby 15s, Upper Hill outlasted Jinja SS 26 to 19, and Laiser Hill launched their 5×5 basketball push with a 51 to 32 win over Juhudi. On Day Two, Butere Girls squeezed past Olympic 57 to 51 in 5×5, and volleyball holders Kesogon shrugged off a lost set to beat Mwitoti 3 to 1, a useful brush with adversity.
Uganda’s blueprint and a misunderstood label
A conversation around dominance always loops back to Uganda. They lifted the overall title for a fourth straight time in 2024, outscoring Kenya in gold tallies, and their strength stretches across team and racket sports, pools and tracks. Coaches point to a brutally competitive pathway at home, where more than 64 teams contest national football brackets that stretch from the last 32 through layered knockouts.
Sam Kamulinde of Bukedea has a practical answer to whispers about Ugandan schools that carry the word college. He explains that college in their school names does not imply post-secondary status, it is simply nomenclature within secondary schooling. The edge Uganda enjoys, he argues, is not a technicality, it is the grind of early starts, year-long preparation and institutional backing.
Preparation, pressure and the human pulse
The best stories here were written long before the buses pulled up to Kakamega. Masero’s Lwanga spent years being told that Mombasa was not a hockey cradle, yet his alumni now populate top-tier clubs. Tigoi turned the sting of Mbale 2024 into fuel, added bench muscle, and taught themselves to trust the system more than a single star.
Even scheduling chaos has been a teacher. The first morning saw delayed arrivals and a rescripted launch, the opening ceremony shifted, and kids asked to flick a mental switch without warning. At the nationals just days earlier, a crowd surge in Mumias forced police to fire teargas that temporarily halted the girls’ football final, a jarring reminder that safeguarding young athletes is as vital as sharpening a press.
Day one snapshots that set the tone
- Hockey boys, Musingu 0 to 1 Kakungulu, St. Anthony’s 2 to 1 M-Pesa Foundation, St. Charles Lwanga 2 to 1 Mbarara
- Hockey girls, St. Joseph’s Kitale 0 to 0 Ng’iya, Tigoi 9 to 0 Bweranyangi, Namagunga 2 to 4 Mwiki
- Rugby 15s, Vihiga 20 to 15 Namilyango, Upper Hill 26 to 19 Jinja SS.
Those were only the first brushstrokes on a wide canvas. By Friday night, St. Mary’s Kitende had hammered Mpamba 9 to 1, Agai had logged their first FEASSSA win, and Musingu had cashed in their pledge with a hard-fought three points. Each result felt like a reel from a longer film, full of quick cuts and slow burns.
What lies ahead
The weekend schedule promised more heavyweight hockey, with Musingu chasing a reset against Ntare, St. Joseph’s Kitale looking for their first win versus Namagunga, and Tigoi sizing up Kakungulu. Rugby’s 7s and 15s stacked the docket with Kenyan and Ugandan powers bumping shoulders, while netball and handball moved from feeling-out jabs to full-blooded exchanges.
Kenya’s depth, spread across additional regional slots in football and volleyball, will be tested by Uganda’s battle-hardened pathways. The hosts thrive in hockey and rugby, Uganda in basketball, netball and the racquet halls, and somewhere in that mix lies the overall crown that has worn Ugandan colors for four cycles running. The margins will be mental, the shifts will be subtle, the winners will be relentless.
Why Kakamega matters
There are medals to count and ladders to climb, but a home FEASSSA edition is also an x-ray of a sporting ecosystem. Bukhungu’s facelift matters because surfaces shape styles, and packed terraces grow dreams that survive graduation. The guest teams widen the mirror, letting East Africa see itself in a broader field, faster and smarter for the next step.
In that larger story, St. Charles Lwanga’s long game, Tigoi’s corrections, and Mwiki’s audacity are not separate tales, they are chapters in a shared book about access and ambition. As the days stretch and the scoreboards tick, Kakamega is teaching its own lesson, that preparation is a culture, pressure is a teacher, and this tournament is where youth learns to carry the weight of a region.
The last word
Win or lose, there is clarity at the heart of this year’s spectacle. The FEASSSA Games demand that you show who you are, not who you were. In Kakamega, that means teams leaning into process, coaches trusting their work, and teenagers discovering that poise is a skill as real as a first touch.
By the final whistle, the medals will glitter, but the memories that last will be the ones forged in the messy middle, in the rescheduled kickoff, the lung-busting press, the last defensive lunge. That is where champions, and the people who become them, are actually made.
