First half goals from Kepha Aswani and John Avire saw Sofapaka hit Western Stima 2-0 at the Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos to move to 56 points in the standings with five rounds of matches left this season.

Aswani broke the deadlock with a beautiful curling effort inside the box, taking a first time shot after Avire had won the ball on the left and cut back a cross for his strike partner to finish.

Before that, Sofapak had an early chance when Mike Oduor, starting ahead of the injured Umaru Kasumba cut in from the left but his shot was always rising and went wide.

Sofapaka then made it 2-0 after 28 minutes when Avire looped in a header past the keeper after he beat him to meet a George Maelo deep cross from the right.

On the other end, Stima had a chance when Henry Onyango ran on the blind side of Maelo and curled in a shot, but it went wide with Justin Ndikumana covering his area well.

In the second half, the team kept on the hunt with coach John Baraza making two changes, Ibrahim Kajuba coming on for Brian Magonya while Dennis Odhiambo came in for Mohammed Kilume.

Odhiambo made his presence felt almost immediately when he rifled through a shot from distance but keeper Samuel Odhiambo on the other end gathered well. Kajuba also had a chance later on but his effort from the left flew wide.

Towards the end, a beautiful team move saw Kajuba put Aswani through with the striker sending Avire on his way with a blinder of a pass through on goal but his shot went inches wide off target. The visitors were reduced to 10 men later on, but Sofapaka still maintained their shape to take maximum points.