In what began as a proposed a restructuring of the National Super League (NSL) and a revision of the promotion and relegation system for the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) by the Kenya Police Fc CEO Chris Oguso in early January, is now looking more likely.
The 2024/2025 FKF Premier League champions CEO, Chris Oguso, argued that by splitting the NSL into two regional zones; Western (Zone A) and Eastern (Zone B), it would lessen the financial burden that has affected most of the NSL teams who have had to deal with limited resources especially honoring the away matches which are often far from their home grounds.
Six months later the Federation under the stewardship of its President Hussein Mohammed, is now set to implement reforms it terms as necessary in improving the competitiveness of Kenya football, cut operational costs across all tiers and raise the standard to catch up with other top African Leagues like that of neighbors Tanzania, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa among others.
Kenya football teams have been lagging behind in continental club competitions with every year’s FKF Premier League champion barely going through play offs to reach group stages.
Among the key proposals is the scaling down of the current 18 Kenyan Premier League (KPL) teams to 16 from the 2026/27 season meaning instead of 3 teams, 4 will be relegated at the end of the upcoming 2025/2026 season for the realignment to happen.
Kenya’s second tier football league, The National Super League (NSL), will be renamed the Kenyan Super League, reorganized into two zonal leagues (Zone A and B) each with a total of 12 teams in the new changes with the aim of easing the financial burden on participating teams that have even lowered its quality over the years.
The third-tier division will be renamed Kenyan Conference League featuring 64 teams divided into four regional zones. This format is expected to offer broader representation across the country while ensuring clubs operate within manageable logistical limits.
Meanwhile FKF Division Two, which will be scrapped off entirely under the new system to eliminate redundancy. These proposals are however subject to ratification by the FKF National Executive Committee in the coming months
