Mathare miseries mirror Kenyan football in ruin

You have got to hand it to Bob Munro. Mathare Youth Sports Association, the football kingdom he created in Kenya’s second largest slum about three decades ago, has stood the test of time.

You can sense its importance by the outpouring of sorrow that followed his announcement last week that Mathare United, an affiliate of MYSA, would issue its first walkover in 28 years due to lack of finances.

This former Canadian civil servant who deserves huge praise for the impact his efforts at MYSA have brought Kenyan football but takes pride in none of it, seems to be the latest key figure to give up on local football.

In more serious football societies, Munro’s announcement should have jolted those who run local football.

The fact that Mathare United’s struggles are the same for all other community clubs in the country should have forced someone at the top to act quickly to avert the crisis now unfolding before us.

But the FKF Caretaker Committee, the country’s least inspiring body both by performance and conduct, continues to keep mum, hoping as they always do, that the matter will resolve itself.

Anyway, now is a good time as any to assess the state of Kenyan football: It is not dead yet but definitely dying. And not because we have been sidelined on the international front owing to the contest between former Football Kenya Federation office holders and the current sports ministry.

It is not that the sport has failed to attract meaningful financial sponsorship to shore it up to greatness.

The thing about doing the wrong thing over and over again is that the results will always leave you on the wrong side of things. Decades of mismanagement and half-hearted attempts by those in power is what has got us here.

And thanks to the cluelessness, recklessness and indecision that is resident at the Amina Mohammed-led ministry, we’ve arrived in this weird place, where we are being reminded at every turn that it is only comedians who require the spotlight, not leaders who control the whole country’s sport so they can have a testosterone-off.

It might be unfair to rest the weight of this slow death of Kenyan football on the shoulders of the FKF CC and the current sports ministry, but neither body will be able to escape blame when the country’s football history is written.

I have interviewed many an alumnus of MYSA, including Doreen Nabwire, Dennis Oliech, Stanley Okumbi, Rosemary Aketch, Duncan Ochieng, Anthony Kimani and even Francis Kimanzi. These are household names in the Kenyan football scene, but more than that, they are individuals whose lives could have turned out differently had it not been for MYSA and Mathare United.

Football gave many of them a platform to shine, to explore their talent, to travel abroad, and more importantly, it helped many of them escape early marriage, teen pregnancy and drug abuse.

It is hard, in any realm, to understand why those who bear responsibility will not give this matter the attention it deserves. And it is a concern for which only one answer is possible – Kenyans have given up completely on their game. May God save MYSA.  

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