CS Amina, please let football restart for the sake of players
President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) chats with Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed during the officially reopening of the refurbished Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi on September 26, 2020.
What you need to know:
- It has been seven months of upswings and downswings owing to the coronavirus.
- The country, like a ship caught up in a bad storm, has been battered left right and centre. And now as it limps into harbour it is my request that as Kenyans we have all hands on deck as we chart the way forward.
Last week I sent an impassioned plea to Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed to consider allowing football back on our pitches. The views were varied with some supporting and others dismissing my call.
Anyway, today I am repeating this statement: Yes, football is a contact sport and attracts large crowds which can be a recipe for the spread of the coronavirus, but I tend to think the CS should have borrowed a leaf from other countries in Africa like South Africa and Egypt where football activities resumed, albeit, behind closed doors.
Most of the measures the government has taken since the emergence of the coronavirus have been guided by what other countries globally have been doing. In Europe for instance, football (and other contact sporting activities) is back in action, but with strict guidelines, why can’t we practice the same in Kenya.”
Like all Kenyans, my eyes are on President Uhuru Kenyatta as this new week starts. We are all eagerly awaiting the decision the good man will make on the future of operations of our country.
It has been seven months of upswings and downswings owing to the coronavirus.
The country, like a ship caught up in a bad storm, has been battered left right and centre. And now as it limps into harbour it is my request that as Kenyans we have all hands on deck as we chart the way forward.
I do not envy the President even for one second. Here is a man facing some of the hardest choices a human being can ever make. On the one hand there is the issue of opening up and risking dragging us all to hell in a handbasket owing to increased infections.
On the other side of the pendulum is the stark reality that the country might as well grind to a halt with continued lockdown. Anyway, as they say, a man gotta do what a man gotta do and I hope the head of state will consider allowing our footballers back to the pitch.
As I argued last week, our young men and women who rely on football for a living have been to hell and back. Locked houses. Unpaid bills. Sick relatives who can’t be helped. Missed opportunities to try luck abroad.
The tribulations visiting our footballers have come in full swing with relatives in tow. An opening of football activities under controlled measures will go a long way in addressing some of these problems, I am sure.
On the positive side, I was happy to see the government open the refurbished Nyayo National Stadium with a promise that there would be more of such in the not so distant future.
Finally a word of congratulations to the management and technical bench of our beloved Gor Mahia. If lack of preparation is preparation for defeat then I dare say that K’Ogalo are readying themselves to put to the sword any club that comes their way.
As the rest of the teams are stuck in the doldrums wondering what tomorrow will bring, Gor Mahia has been busy with military like training regimen for the boys. All I can say to our opponents is, bring it on!
