FKF doing a great disservice to women's football

This past week, Football Kenya Federation unveiled a strategic plan proudly dressed in decent English words that apart from intending to show foresight, also sought to position Kenya as a powerhouse in women’s football.

If you have not laid hands on the document by now, here’s news for you - it is not available on the federation's website.

You see, football in this country operates behind a veil of secrecy where information is decimated in a targeted manner. This, my friends is a modern day private members club funded by tax-payers money, CAF, Fifa and sponsors.

The contents of this document do not reveal how this is a plan or a strategy. It is a shallow document, expertly packaged and complimented by beautiful graphics.

Isn’t it amazing that six years into their administration, and nine months after that landslide slide win that earned them re-election, the current office has actually been running football activities without a strategic plan?

Their poor leadership that is urged on by cheerleaders, who throw the tired "at least they are doing something" line shall, pin you back every time you call them out.

No need to feel guilty, because the truth is that women footballers have over the years been shortchanged by successive regimes, this one included.

If the embarrassment of awarding Sh350,000 to the winner of the Women's Premier League does not offend you enough, picture the state of women from all corners of the country playing in the sanctioned leagues.

They have to go back home and stare at their loved ones who see no economic value in their engagement with the sport as there is nothing substantial to show for it.

It is a fundamental right and not a favour as the current office portrays it, to have clear women’s league structures, national teams, capacity building and research based regulatory frameworks.

Women who have chosen the sport should not be made to feel like beggars, the streets out there are hard enough and a round leather ball should not be the ultimate begging bowl they have to kick and hold as a mark of shame as empty claps fill their air as a backdrop of their ‘bad’ choice.

Football like any other business thrives on perception and branding. A simple online shows the WPL has no official website. It does not exist because like many other things planned for women’s football, they only exist in a document that need a grandiose launch.

End of my rant.

However, here are a few questions for the football authorities.

Were the stakeholders involved in the drafting of the document?

In terms of infrastructure  and funding, what are the numbers projected and opportune sources of funding?

What are the Key Performance Indicators of progress or regress?

A knowledge and depiction of the economic, political, environmental, technological and legal environment bears a lot on the success or failure of a plan, how does this habitat set up women’s football for failure or success?

What is the budget and for what period is this plan’s window of execution?

Strategies do not get implemented in an amorphous environment and require stakeholder support.

In a document of such serious nature, it is a glaring error to note that of all stakeholders listed, the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Sports who, for the past four years have injected, according to the FKF books of accounts Sh567,647,880, do not get any mention. County governments, corporate entities, media, Fifa, CAF, Cecafa and fans are gladly swept aside.

For a country that boasts of over 10 million mothers, we continue to do a great disservice to not just their sons, but their daughters who also love football.

To Kandanda House, women’s football deserves so much better.