  We derive and study a spin-orbital model for ions with $d^1$ electronic
configuration on a honeycomb lattice. In this system, the directional character
of $t_{2g}$ orbital leads to extensively degenerate dimerized ground states. We
find that additional interactions from charge transfer processes completely
lift the degeneracy and stabilize the Kekule spin-orbit dimerized phase where
dimers form a kagome superlattice. For such phase, the triplon band spectrum
resembles the electronic band structure of the kagome lattice and becomes
topologically non-trivial in the presence of inter-dimer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya
interactions. As an experimental verification of the Kekule dimerized phase, we
propose the thermal Hall experiment, which can directly uncover the topological
profile of the corresponding triplon band spectrum.
