'Kempes' can clean our football but must be ready to play rough

My one-time editor, Omulo Okoth, describes the legendary Gor Mahia player Sammy ‘Kempes’ Owino as the one player who during his heyday gave football fans real value for their money and time inside the stadium. The veteran sports journalist doesn’t stop there. He proclaims Kempes the best thing that ever happened to Gor Mahia and the Kenyan national team Harambee Stars before he hung up his boots.

Those were many years ago. Precisely between 1978 and 1982, I’m reliably informed. The current generation of Kenyan football fans may not know much about Kempes, but the older generation of K’Ogalo fans, just like Omulo Okoth, have never stopped waxing lyrical about this player.

One dead giveaway about Kempes and his legendary status in Gor Mahia’s folklore is of course his nickname. That he was nicknamed after the iconic Argentine player, Mario Kempes, is a big statement about just how skillful the retired Gor Mahia player used to be.

The real Kempes, by the way, is the man who gave Argentina its first World Cup in 1978. In the football-crazy South American country, he is mentioned in the same breath as his fellow countrymen Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi who would later follow in his footsteps by winning World Cup titles of their own.

Now, after a ‘self-imposed exile’ in the US, the Kenyan Kempes has returned home with an eye on the top job in Kenyan football, the FKF presidency. With the polls slated for February next year, the announcement of his candidature is already drawing diverse views within local football circles.

I have picked up bits and pieces of Kempes campaign priorities. They look pretty good on paper and I must agree with my former editor Omulo Okoth that he could just be the right candidate to bring a paradigm shift in the management of Kenyan football.

Priority areas in his blueprint include building football infrastructure across the board through youth and women football development, coaching education, player scouting as well as revamping the leagues and national teams structures. 

He has also stated that his immediate priority, if elected, will be to build trust between the federation and the government, something which has clearly been lacking over the years.

All this sounds good to the ear. Plus, Kempes also cuts the image of a genuinely nice guy, if his looks are anything to go by. And therein lies a potential pitfall. Just like in the case of holders of political offices, Kenyans have a penchant for electing the wrong people to run sports. 

I’m sorry to say that in Kenya, good guys, like Kempes, always finish last. Why? Because Kenyans are incomprehensibly infatuated with bad leadership. We willfully vote in the wrong people so that thereafter we can have an excuse to shout from the rooftops about how much our leaders have shortchanged us. In truth, it’s Kenyans who often shortchange themselves.

A final word of caution for Kempes. The rough and tumble of sports administration in Kenya is full of skullduggery and betrayal. I assume Kempes was not a rough player during his playing days. But now that he has chosen to swim with the sharks, he must quickly learn to play rough. Otherwise, he can as well forget about his sports administration ambitions. Good luck Kempes!

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