Stop opening up old Kenyan football wounds
Cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohamed speaks during a press conference at the Kenya Wildlife Service Training College in Naivasha on June 21, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Few top flight clubs pay salaries consistently, the fate of the 2022-23 season is in limbo
A few weeks ago, after Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed extended the Football Kenya Federation Transition Committee’s term, I noticed a sudden rash of social media postings, all hammering out the same bitterly aggressive message: “If you supported the creation of the caretaker committee, don’t come crying about the current status of local football, because it’s all your fault. The CC’s performance has been below average. So now, whenever those who advocated for a takeover of FKF complain that we are in more bedlam than we were in last year, they get advised to pay the price and stop whining.”
This argument is an energy-sapping, time-wasting, zero sum game when the reality is that all roads out of the crisis in local football lead via a total overhaul of the people predominantly driving it.
Rehashing old grievances about the importance of the previous regime and the folly of the caretaker committee won’t send Harambee Stars to the World Cup.
For good measure, the contest to replace the former office has dragged on for so long that familiarity is breeding indifference.
Few top flight clubs pay salaries consistently, the fate of the 2022-23 season is in limbo because many clubs have threatened to boycott the league until the mess is sorted, and it is almost a year since we saw Harambee Stars in any kind of action.
Spectators have deserted stadiums once again and sponsors have followed suit.
This has given strength to the argument that Amina Mohamed erred in sending the previous regime home.
Anyone who moves in local sports circles will be increasingly hearing the argument that the “real” cause of the mess in our sports is not the previous regime, or the Sam Nyamweya one, but self-hatred, witch-hunting and a voting system which gives too much power to the incumbent, and anyone else with the right amount of money.
Although only partly true, this angry refrain is being picked up and repeated, and as a result, we are losing sight of what a great opportunity we have to fix our sport, and more importantly, what a ground-breaking event this delayed 2022 presidential succession race actually is.
As we await the coming in of a new President, there is an opportunity for local sports to grow bigger, and we must.
As we speak, Fifa and CAF are waiting eagerly for the announcement of who, eventually, will get to occupy State House before making their next move.
This gives credence to the reality that in the current football environment, a dalliance between politics and leadership is inevitable. But, I cannot accept a logic that suggests that political godfathers have a free hand to force incompetent leaders down our throats.
Whoever is named President of Kenya after September 5 should come into office knowing that football stakeholders need to get into a different trajectory – one of urgent leadership, of recognition of the precipice we are facing, and of continued progress in our efforts to rid the industry of corruption and bad governance.
It is not only possible – it is necessary. That said, this is a wonderful lesson learnt: That in the midst of such difficulties, people tend to forget who the real culprit is.
