Oh Lord, please have mercy on Kenyan football!

Harambee Stars

Harambee Stars players pose for a group photo prior to their during their Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying Group E match against Mali in Agadir, Morocco on October 7, 2021.

Photo credit: Pool |

What you need to know:

  • We’ve been told that this fellow actually entered a two-month contract with FKF.
  • Now the outcome of this bizarre deal is out for all to see.

We’ve been scammed. Big time! I’m talking about Harambee Stars' 5-0 bludgeoning by a ruthless Malian side on Thursday night in a 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying match in Morocco’s coastal city of Agadir.

And this one certainly went way over the top. Even during the worst of times, it's hard to recall the last time our national team suffered such a heavy beating in a competitive match.

In other countries where there are sound systems in place, such a calamity would have triggered a chain reaction with far-reaching implications. The playing unit would have been subjected to serious scrutiny, a thorough interrogation of the federation would have been commissioned and that foreign national with nondescript coaching credentials who led our pitiful squad to the shipwreck in the Moroccan waters would have had his work permit immediately revoked.

But this being Kenya, no such thing will happen. Other than the harmless trolls and memes that were trending online in the wake of the horror showing, it will soon be business as usual for the people who run football in this country.

No heads will roll because we are an unaccountable society where anything goes. We thrive in mediocrity, which has been the middle name of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) under the leadership of a certain Nick Mwendwa.

Forget Arsene Wenger, who was once described as a “specialist in failure” by one Jose Mourinho. In my reckoning, the ‘Special One’ got it all wrong. Mwendwa and his acolytes at FKF are the real specialists in failure.

Like the vast majority of their predecessors, when the tenure of Mwendwa’s administration comes to an end – and this can’t come soon enough – there will be nothing to write home about, other than yet another depressing chapter of gross maladministration of Kenyan football.

The real tragedy, however, is the sense of self-importance of the current office of bearers of FKF.

Mwendwa is particularly fond of bragging about achievements that only he knows about, yet it’s as clear as daylight that Kenyan football has for the longest time been fighting for its life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Which is why I'm not holding my breath for the spin Mwendwa and his mandarins at Kandanda House will give for their latest failure. They will most probably pass buck while bidding their time for the long-suffering fans of the national team to ‘forget’ this most recent public humiliation of immense proportions.

Mercifully, the Malians have exposed our disgraceful national team for what it really is – a bunch of non-starters who would actually have a hard time if they were required to qualify for the lowly Cecafa regional tournament.

And let’s not even get started with that foreigner masquerading as the national team head coach.

What’s his name again? Engin who? For all its past failures and diminished profile, Harambee Stars surely deserves better than such characterless personalities as head coach.

We’ve been told that this fellow actually entered a two-month contract with FKF after Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee was inexplicably shown the door. Now the outcome of this bizarre deal is out for all to see.

And this is what should have happened on Thursday night in Morocco. At the full time whistle, this Engine (sic) guy – whatever his name is – should have been fastened on a rickety wooden raft and left to drift away in the Mediterranean Sea to where he came from.

For how long must we put up with FKF's endless con game? We are indeed in a very bad place!