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Newly-acquired AFC Leopard’s women’s team from former Women’s Premier League( WPL) side Makolanders FC started their pre-season training yesterday in Nairobi at the Camp Toyoyo Stadium.

The team will go by the name Makolanders/AFC Leopards and is looking to have a squad of 23 players ahead of the women’s division one league season.

“We already have 13 players from Makolanders and are looking to add ten more to complete the roster, though the turn up is not as we had expected,” said head coach Florence Adhiambo adding that it is challenging to motivate women to play football without resources.

Makolanders, a historical football women’s club from Nairobi’s Eastlands areas was formed in 1993 after then Eastlanders FC combined with Makongeni sports to form Makolanders with the aim of promoting women’s football in Nairobi.

The club has been playing in Kenya’s first tier women’s football league untill the 2021/2022 season when they were relegated owing to a poor show of results that was blamed to inadequate financial resources.

Now 12-time FKF Premier League club AFC Leopard’s have partnered with Makolanders in a bid to meet their club licensing demands from the Football Kenya Federation (FKF)  and CAF, something that brings a ray of hope to the women’s club as they now dream to rise again to the WPL.

The women’s division one league has this season been expanded into four zones with ten teams playing in each zone according to a release from FKF.

Makolanders will be playing in zone A which is the Nairobi central and eastern zone. Zone B has clubs from the North and south coast, Zone C belongs to Nyanza and lower rift and finally Zone D will involve western and upper rift regions.