Wednesday 19 September 2007

Sports in the Fringes?

For awhile now the Kenyan scene is coloured with all colours you’d think of. Well the politicos will be yelling themselves hoarse as they try keeping us busy with their sweet-nothings. This throws more important issues such as sports activities through the window. I’m bemused by these guys as some have tried being populist with this or that donation and pronouncement once a Kenyan team representing us in any discipline wins (or at times loses).
Sample this, a candidate for the top seat promised to get the national football team to the next World Cup (I don’t know whether he has the skill of one Marcelo Lippi or Franz Beckenbeur), another has gone to the extent of saying he’ll ensure Kenya is the first African nation to host the Olympic Games. I got tickled to my smallest toe.
What are these guys trying? For a country which doesn’t have a sports policy 51 years since it first appeared on the international scene, this would be taking it a bit too far. I’m yet to go through their party manifestos but then again why would I need to know when the same myopic thoughts plague them? The Governing party (or what is left of it) is also not without blame. Why do we have to wait until the bodies running the disciplines to make requests for you to act?
A point in mind is the recent success of the women’s volleyball team. They had to request for subsidies from the Government for it to have them train at the Kasarani gymnasium- the only venue where they can make/break their chances of the Volleyball World Cup in November. While I don’t believe in freebies, structures and policies ought to be in place to cater for such. Why would a team like the hockey team have to threaten for them to be considered?
Before I start getting emotional here let me say whatever party takes power in the coming elections, sport ought to be a main agenda (not the power-sharing agreements drafted in some watering hole!). What with the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Africa Cup of Nations in 2010 and the World Cup in South Africa, with their mandate ending in 2012(if they hold together) we have the Olympic Games in London. Get serious guys!

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