Coronavirus: Kakamega Homeboyz players accept 50% pay cut

Kakamega Homeboyz players have agreed to take a 50% reduction of their salaries, the club has confirmed.

The Kakamega-based club through their chairman Cleophas Shimanyula has stated their players have accepted to take a pay cut following President Uhuru Kenyatta's plea on March 25, as one way of helping the country deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

President Kenyatta and his deputy agreed to take an 80% pay cut and Kakamega Homeboyz are the first Kenyan Premier League (KPL) side to follow suit.

“We have reached into an agreement with our players that in March we will pay them full salaries but in April they will take a 50% pay cut. We had long deliberations and they all have understood why the club is taking such a move,” Shimanyula told Goal on Sunday.

“We have also released them and they have gone home until normalcy is restored.”

“My government has offered a voluntary salary reduction to senior government officials,” Kenyatta announced in his latest state of the nation address, where he also laid down new measures the government was taking in as far as the fight against Covid-19 is concerned.

Kakamega Homeboyz captain Allan Wanga has been one of the vocal KPL stars who has come out to urge Kenyans take necessary and precautionary steps in dealing with the viral disease.

“Let's stay at home and play our part. Let's all stop the spread of the coronavirus,” Wanga said in a Twitter message on March 27.

Nicholas Muyoti's side was enjoying a good run before the KPL was suspended in mid-March and is sitting second with 47 points and have one game in hand compared to leaders Gor Mahia.

K'Ogalo are leading with 54 points from 23 matches.

Vocal Kakamega Homeboyz chairman Shimanyula has opposed the notion of handing Gor Mahia the title should the season end pre-maturely.

“I don’t think awarding Gor Mahia the league will be a fair decision, we have all been fighting for the same aim to win the league and for us to be second means we are on course to win the title,” Shimanyula told Goal on Tuesday.

“What FKF should do if indeed, we reach a situation where the league is stopped, then we must compel Gor Mahia and Homeboyz to face off in a play-off clash to decide the winner."