Kisumu Hot Stars join lists of teams salivating on automatic promotion

National Super League returnees Kisumu Hot Stars are the latest club to reveal their intentions of pursuing automatic promotion at the end of the season.

Hot stars were plucked from the Division One league to fill the void left by the struggling Chemelil Sugar who eventually sunk into oblivion just less than five rounds in the season.

Despite being deemed as underdogs and inexperienced ; the club’s assistant coach Charles Odera is daring to dream as he has revealed that promotion to the FKPL is their season’s bare minimum. Hot Stars are placed eleventh with 21 points, nine shy of league leaders Kenya Police.

“Our objective is to gain automatic promotion at the end of the season. We know we are new in the league but that does not necessarily mean we are not capable of scaling to the top league. We didn’t begin well but the players have shaken off the stage fright and are working hard to meet the target,” he said.

Odera, who served as Chemelil head coach from 2019 following the departure of Francis Baraza to Tanzania’s Biashara United cited his experience as a player as a motivation to the players.

Prior to joining the Chemelil technical bench, Odera skippered the club for years and boasts to have been a member of the dreaded Oserian squad which dominated the league in the early 2000’s.

 “As a former player who played at the big stage and in the national team, I have a duty of motivating the players and reminding them they are not limited and they should not feel inferior just because it’s their first time in the NSL,” he added.

 The club is set to play Silibwet Leons on Wednesday in round 16.