Empty promises for sports that come every election season

As ordained by nature, human existence is dictated by cycles. The sun rises and sets, our daily activities humming along in conformity. The earth makes its yearly journey around the sun, ushering in seasons that signal and prompt us to plant, harvest or even fish.

Yet, not all human cycles are orchestrated by nature. Some are of our own making. We once again arrive at the election season as dictated by our democratic political cycle.

This electioneering season, like many before it in Kenya, is highly charged. Political brinkmanship is being served to the electorate in healthy – and in some cases very unhealthy – doses.

Every seasoned politician knows that instilling fear is just but one trick from the campaign playbook; offering hope often serves as a clever counterbalance to our collective psyche.

As would be expected, both sides of the political divide are presently dishing out handouts left, right and center, with a promise for loads of goodies if elected to office. But we’ve been here many times before.

The sports enthusiast in me can’t help but recollect the many promises to grow sports that the outgoing administration made on the campaign trail five years ago. It behooves us to scrutinize the government’s scorecard on this matter vis-à-vis its pledges and mandate if we are to make informed decisions going forward.

The most ambitious pledge was the building of nine stadia across the country. You must marvel at the political guile and audacity that it takes to make such a pledge having failed to deliver five stadia promised in 2013.

Indeed, in 2017 the government embarked on the construction of stadia in some counties, including Kiambu, Marsabit, Elgeyo Marakwet, Nyeri, Chuka, Moyale, West Pokot and Makueni. This initial momentum, however, was quickly lost and these projects are yet to be completed despite the billions of shilling disbursed by the exchequer.

Even though some progress has been made as evidenced by the completion of Ulinzi Sports Complex, one wonders if the project is even sustainable in the long term, considering the sorry state that older public sports facilities currently lie in.

The Sports Ministry has also shown an inept hand in its oversight role over sports governing bodies such as Football Kenya Federation (FKF). Case in point is the poor handling of the corruption lawsuit filed against FKF’s former president Nick Mwendwa.

This knee jerk operation mode was not only embarrassing but also did very little to solve the administrative problems that have for ages been bedeviling the federation.

To be fair to the government, the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage has overseen the return of the Safari Rally to the World Rally Championship circuit.

A much loved event whose popularity goes back decades, the rally’s return to Kenya was received with delight, pomp and flair. Credit is due to the ministry for also hosting the  World Athletics Under-20 Championships in 2021 with Team Kenya coming tops.

Opinion may be divided on the performance of the outgoing Jubilee government in sports development, but my view is that there’s little to celebrate.

The Uhuru administration’s obsession with infrastructure projects may have informed the push for the stadia construction, but could we be setting ourselves up for white elephants? It suffices to say, the jury is still out on this.

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