Football is a viable venture through which gifted young men and women in the vast Western region of Kenya, particularly Bungoma County have embraced as an alternative source of income.
A host of them join grassroots soccer clubs right after the completion of their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams, henceforth making ends meet in the game and striving to change the phase of their respective homes.
A sport that requires top notch individual discipline and unending self denial for success, Kevin Mito, an alumnus of Bukembe SA High School has risen above the odds to emerge as the household name among his peers in his promising football career.
Born and raised in family with no football roots and history, the 21-year-old midfielder shaped up his career throughout his primary school years at Bukembe Primary School and further in secondary school.
He spent his eight years of basic education at Bukembe Primary until 2014 while playing for school team. At primary school level, Mito guided his side to various levels in the Bungoma Country Primary School Games to different levels.
The youngster later joined Bukembe SA for his secondary education and was directly included in the school team squad from 2015 to 2018, the year he wrote his KCSE exams. He was an integral part of his school team, helping them compete in different contests at school level to various heights.
Mito is tipped to rise to higher ranks in the country’s football with his track record commendable at the lower division side Bukembe Football Club in Bungoma County, an outfit he joined after completing his form four in 2018.
“We have won all the organized tournaments at ward level. We also won the Football Kenya Federation Western Region Cup that earned us promotion to the FKF Division 2 League Western Zone A,” he told Sports Africa.
Mito went ahead to reveal that Bukembe FC is aiming for a spot in the National Division One League, the National Super League (NSL) and the FKF Premier League in the near future.
“We are determined to play through the ranks all the way to the FKF Premier League, that’s where we will perhaps get more exposure as players.”
The midfielder was scouted and recruited for trials at the neighbouring Premier League side Nzoia Sugar FC for six months last year but never made the cut to the final list of the recruits at the sugar millers.
Missing out on a chance to feature for Nzoia in the top tier league has however, challenged the midfielder to polish his skills with an aim of bouncing back better.
“My ultimate goal is to one day play in the Kenyan Premier League and thereafter in major leagues abroad,” the soft spoken prodigy explained.
However, Bukembe was relegated from the lower division league Western region after dishing out three consecutive walkovers courtesy of the unforgiving financial constraints.
Meanwhile, young people are using talent as an avenue of earning a living in the era of skyrocketing unemployment rate among the educated, unemployed and desperate youth in Kenya.
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