The only way to develop Kenya’s football is through 70s-style Olympic youth centres
Thomas Onyango Omollo chairman Okore Golden Youth FC casts his ballot during the FKF Nyanza North branch elections at the Tumaini Hall in Kisumu. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- A new team will be in charge of Kenya’s football shortly after chaotic and shambolic countywide grassroots polls.
- President Sam Nyamweya is fighting to save his job as his supporters were last week decamping to team up with challenger Ambrose Rachier as the incumbent’s boat took on water, thanks to a not so strong showing in the branch elections the previous week.
- The decamping Nyamweya supporters may not all end up in Mr Rachier’s column.
- Mr Nick Mwendwa, who is believed to have bagged more delegates than either Mr Rachier or Mr Nyamweya, is equally determined to reap from Mr Nyamweya’s listing vessel.
- Having run a high- profile campaign for longer than the rest and been touted as the face of change, innovation and future of Kenya’s football, Mr Mwendwa is not about to let Mr Rachier elbow him out at the finish line.
A new team will be in charge of Kenya’s football shortly after chaotic and shambolic countywide grassroots-up polls that will culminate in the election of the national office four days out.
Five things stand out: One, President Sam Nyamweya is fighting to save his job as his supporters were last week decamping to team up with challenger Ambrose Rachier as the incumbent’s boat took on water, thanks to a not so strong showing in the branch elections the previous week.
Two, the decamping Nyamweya supporters may not all end up in Mr Rachier’s column.
Mr Nick Mwendwa, who is believed to have bagged more delegates than either Mr Rachier or Mr Nyamweya, is equally determined to reap from Mr Nyamweya’s listing vessel.
Having run a high- profile campaign for longer than the rest and been touted as the face of change, innovation and future of Kenya’s football, Mr Mwendwa is not about to let Mr Rachier elbow him out at the finish line.
Three, before the election on Wednesday, there is going to be even more intense jockeying for delegates between Mr Mwendwa, Mr Rachier and Mr Nyamweya, because the latter appears determined to win back the decamped supporters.
Four, this last-ditch campaigning will be predicated on which region will get what post as the winner constructs his secretariat. And this will in turn revolve around the numbers of delegates each region will bring to the table to shore up the chances of its man grabbing the presidency.
A total of 77 delegates are available but, interestingly, both Mwendwa and Rachier camps were on Friday claiming to have 40 votes in the bag.
Indeed, each camp was claiming to be fielding calls from delegates eager to change allegiance. In my view, the incumbent can only be counted out if he loses the vote of the region previously called Western Province with its 11 votes for that is his bedrock.
Indeed, my information is that Mr Nyamweya intended to have a meeting with his supporters on Sunday on flying in from the CHAN finals in Kigali.
Five, whether the winner this week is lawyer Rachier, the Gor Mahia FC and Kenya Premier League (KPL) chairman, or the technology savvy and Steve Jobs-emulating Mwendwa of the change team, or embattled status quo-bound Nyamweya, Kenya’s football is in a shambles organisationally and in terms of ambition and achievement.
The national side Harambee Stars, which is the responsibility of the Football Kenya Federation (FKF), is a veritable source of agony for fans and embarrassment for patriots for its failure to win matches or prepare adequately for them.
CONQUERED THE CONTINENT
Older Kenyans remember with nostalgia the days of the Marshall Mulwa-coached Harambee Stars and it is not because the team conquered the continent; it is because it had promise and embodied a dream in long-term planning.
That team that reached the finals of the Fourth All Africa Games in 1987 and lost to the mighty Pharaohs of Egypt showed Kenyans what investment in youth football means in terms of returns.
Today there is not even a semblance of youth football in Kenya yet the enduring lesson from that team of 1987 is that the products of the youth development programme of the 1970s had matured.
The lesson is that the only way to develop Kenya’s football is through the 70s-style olympic youth centres. And, of course, this must be a joint effort between the national football governing body and the government.
Needless to say, the outgoing office did not see eye to eye with the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Dr Hassan Wario. Each blames the other for the unfortunate state of affairs.
In the beginning of the FKF race, I argued that the age card would be introduced to keep out Mr Mwendwa. I said that the politically inclined Nyamweya would dangle critics the bait of positions, telling them that if they backed him they would succeed him four years down the line, but if they supported Mr Mwendwa, they would never get into influential positions because of his age.
Towards the end of last year, I argued that as campaigns headed into the sub-branch polls, the fight mutated into a three-horse race with the entry of Mr Rachier as the flagbearer for the KPL clubs.
Now the envisaged merger of Rachier and Nyamweya supporters is aimed at locking out Mr Mwendwa in favour of the status quo. The difference is that the favoured candidate is not Mr Nyamweya.
