Award timely recognition of Bob Munro’s work in sport
Mathare United chairman Bob Munro speaks during the club's partnership launch with betting firm Triple5Bet in Nairobi on December 1, 2020.
What you need to know:
- We had opined in this same column that MYSA is not just about football; it is not just about sports.
- It is something grander than that. It is life of a whole community and if it wished to thump its chest, it would have to just list for us all those boys and girls it turned into responsible citizens - and they are many!
That the founder of Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) Bob Munro has been awarded Canada’s highest honour is good news.
This comes at a time when we are on our knees and the government has grown a thick skin against any form of criticism.
Even as we congratulate Munro, we must also take time to reflect on the Canadian government’s view of things vis-à-vis ours.
Munro arrived here from Canada when I was still a toddler, and in a sense, he is even more Kenyan than I can imagine. From 1985 to the present, Canada never forgot him.
He has been on the radar all the while and thus the national award he got in recognition of his exceptional work on environmental issues and sustainable development.
Can we say that of Kenya where domestic workers are murdered for fun in the Gulf nations and we are annoyed but have no power to do anything about it? Instead, we continue sending more of them there.
Can we say the same for a country where the national awards have been trashed, or are reserved for questionably educated politicians? Where did we go wrong?
Has it ever crossed our lazy minds even for a second that Munro deserves recognition in Kenya for his work at MYSA?
How many sports organisers have ever been knighted in Kenya? What fiend draws up the list of recipients of national honours in Kenya? Is it a sane individual who does that?
The manner in which Munro welcomed the honour tells us a lot.
“Although my focus has always been on getting positive results and change rather than awards, I must honestly confess that getting this award was a happy surprise,” he said.
That is at best humble and acceptable to educated citizenry. Now, compare that to the charade of “githeri man” appearing on many television talk shows and feeling grand instead of holding his head in shame.
That is our problem in this country. As we celebrate Munro for all he has done in the slums, we must also reflect on the attitude of our successive governments towards national recognition of individual achievements.
That would be a real start towards uplifting sports in this country.
"Bob Munro is credited for advancing international environmental and sustainable development policy, and for founding a leading youth sports and community building organization in Kenya," Canada’s Governor-General Mary Simon said while awarding him.
A few weeks ago, we saw Mathare being relegated from the Kenyan Premier League after missing three matches.
We had opined in this same column that MYSA is not just about football; it is not just about sports.
It is something grander than that. It is life of a whole community and if it wished to thump its chest, it would have to just list for us all those boys and girls it turned into responsible citizens - and they are many!
