Scourge of age-cheating in Kenyan sports must be dealt with decisively

Sometimes in February 2003, something ugly, and beautiful happened concerning Kenyan football.

The ugly first. An unfancied Kenyan youth team stunned their feared Ghanaian counterparts by eliminating them from the 2003 Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The Ghanaian, considered giants of the game on the continent, were understandably sceptical of Kenya's victory, and loudly expressed their reservations with the age of the Kenya U-17 players captained by the rather physically imposing McDonald Mariga.

Reports emerged from their camp that they would be filing an appeal and Nation naturally covered that story even mentioning some of the players suspected to have cheated on their age.

I was at that time a cab reporter with Nation and remember people within the Kenyan football fraternity chastising us for prominently covering such a story that would jeopardise Kenya's chance of playing in Africa.

"You guys, stop spoiling for this team, it is our team," was the general reprimand from fans and even officials. It was like they were encouraging the media to abet age-cheating as long as it was our team and we were winning.

Now the beautiful. The NARC government had just gotten into power on a strong anti-corruption platform. The Sports Minister then Najib Balala quickly picked up the story and did something about it. Something unprecedented.

Balala on February 14 of that year disbanded the team and said he would write to CAF instructing them to withdraw Kenya from the competition.

He did not stop there. The players suspected to have cheated on their age were arrested and several confessed that it was the officials who had facilitated the fraud.

I was particularly distressed with the case of one Nicodemus Anunda. His real age was said to be, wait for this, 26 years! How unfair can that be to 17-year-olds.

A former coach revealed how the cheating was carried out and even implicated some senior federation officials. But the federation came out swinging three days later, with the chairman then Maina Karuiki saying the team would not be disbanded and he would resign if Fifa and CAF supported the government’s action.

Interestingly, Fifa initially warned the Kenyan government over disbanding the national team terming it interference with the running of football. My foot!

Fifa boss, then Sepp Blatter, said it was the responsibility of the Confederation of African Football to investigate the allegations and act accordingly.

A few days later, KFF formally withdrew Kenya from the qualifiers, while CAF announced the suspension of Kenyan youth teams for two years.

The whole saga made me question the values of Kenyans, and I still do, looking at how age-cheating remains a scourge that nobody wants to deal with firmly and decisively. It seems like no lessons were learnt from the 2003 Under-17 fiasco.

Just the other day, Athletics Kenya (AK) revealed it was investigating 25 cases of age cheating among athletes.

AK president Jackson Tuwei said falsification of birth certificates and passports for athletes to be eligible, especially for under-20 competitions cases was reaching alarming levels and the association had sought the help of the central government.

I venture to say the situation is worse in schools’ games. The Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association's eligibility rules has an age limit of 19 years, but cases of cheating remain rampant.

For instance, there are about five cases of age cheating allegations currently being resolved just from the Nyanza Region Games that concluded last week.

The list of cases countrywide would be as long as Gen Z’s issues with President Ruto and his government. There is one case of suspected age cheating that I must speak about even while others hush it up.

Wiyeta Girls were ejected from the Trans Nzoia County Games after some jury ruled they had used an overage player. Name of the player? Kenya’s Junior Starlets defender Lorine Ilavonga.

Reports have it that the Fifa Women’s Under-17 World Cup-bound Ilivonga is actually over 19 years old. The last I heard, Wiyeta appealed against that ruling. No word yet on the verdict, but Wiyeta and Ilavonga were conspicuously absent from the Rift Valley Region Games last week.

The Sports CS should take over this case and if indeed age-cheating has taken place, the repercussions should mirror the situation of 2003.

Age-cheating is a fraud and, in football, it flies against one of Fifa’s most common slogans: “fair play”.

However, I bet you, there are many Kenyans who are mad that this alleged dishonesty is receiving media attention. They will be mad that this column is calling out the fraud. That we are spoiling for our national team.

This should have been quietly solved inside the house. If it means Kenya losing their World Cup position and even receiving a Fifa ban. Let it be so to teach us a lesson. Let's say a big no to age-cheating. Let all those who abet and assist in the deception face the music.