By Kenn Okaka
The Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula got it all wrong in castigating the leadership of football as successive government administrations in the past have turned a blind eye on giving support to the growth and development of football in Kenya.
Unknown to Wetangula, football is now better managed compared to the 30 years ago and the lack of government support for sports in the past for years in the development of infrastructure and other developmental aspects of growth in the entire talent sector has largely contributed to the lackluster growth of football in Kenya.
During the vetting of the Cabinet nominee for the ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports Kipchumba Murkomen in Parliament, Wetangula compared the current state of football in Kenya with the yesteryears saying that 30 years ago, there was better standards of football in Kenya than today.
Wetangula encouraged Murkomen to take Kenya into a FIFA ban, by interfering with the federation castigating the Football Kenya Federation leadership for a dip in standards of football.
What Speaker Wetangula never put in mind is that a wholistic development of football involves different stakeholders and the government is the biggest of them.
The Kenyan Government has over the years failed to develop infrastructure save for the current government which has been seen to make steps in the support of sports activities through the Talanta Hela Initiative. Through this initiative, for the first time, we are witnessing good government support to our junior teams where the Talanta Hela Under 19 team even went for a bootcamp in Spain as well as overall support for the other teams in general. The Talanta Hela stadium which is under construction is a great stride ahead and for the first time Kasarani stadium is undergoing good renovations as well as a face lift and redevelopment works at Nyayo stadium.
Comparably, the 30 years that Wetangula referred to were a different ball game all together as the government ministries and parastatals then directly offered employment to players, this being a foremost incentive. Today, unemployment is rampant in both the private and public sector and the sure way of players to benefit from football is by way of direct employment by clubs.
The football Kenya Federation has made a deliberate effort to professionalize football; this has led to clubs now paying salaries to their players who are legally and professionally contracted. Furthermore, by opening up the professional phase of football in Kenya, today hundreds, of footballers are plying their trade abroad, earning decently from football and contributing immensely to the national teams from the age group levels all the way to the senior national teams.
In those yesteryears, football was one of the direct employment forms, other countries realized the potential of sports in job creation and invested in developing facilities. They offered the best support to sports and the move has paid off but Kenya remained in the doldrums as successive governments gave a cold shoulder to sports development. This, Speaker Wetangula must be well aware of, having been a parliamentarian since 1992, a cumulative 32 years.
Kenya was also plagued with bad management coupled with lack of government support to grow the sport. Sports has not been taken as a business but just a hobby. This is the space that football has been trying to fight for.
The current FKF has laid emphasis on capacity building. The federation has capitalized on the development of coaches, referees and other stakeholders involved in the game who in turn impact the growth of the game, these are actions that other countries took over 30 years ago but have only started being implemented in Kenya since 2016 when the current FKF took over.
Governments and counties for years now have been building what they call international stadiums, sadly, these facilities are unable to even host local league matches, let alone international games. Wetangula as the speaker of the national assembly should use the institution to question such issues and keep the government officials and governors in check to ensure that they deliver infrastructure that will be used to grow the intense talent pool that is available in Kenya.
For Speaker Wetangula to castigate FKF leadership, he must holistically look at the roles played by every stakeholder, government being forefront. The current FKF, has professionalized football, empowered coaches and referees, and emphasized on the development of women and youth football that is today on an upward trajectory. The largest Telecommunication company Safaricom has partnered with FKF to organize the Chapa Dimba tournament which is the largest grassroot tournament in Kenya. There have been no issues with FKF and tournament continues to run well impacting greatly on the development of youth football in Kenya.
The foundation, which was supposed to have been laid years ago is now being laid by the current federation and will bear fruits in the future. Football needed someone who will develop football from the grassroots including capacity building of different stakeholders of the game and the investment will be realized in the future. The area of infrastructure must be addressed if Kenya is to attain the desired development and this should come from the policy making organs of government where our leaders are the key players.
Kenn Okaka is a communications experts and football stakeholder.
