Sporting a great way to engage Kenyan youth productively

Kenya, a nation teeming with a large youthful population, is on the cusp of a great future, if only we leverage this demographic dividend properly.

Granted, education and enterprise have been touted as key to taking this population segment to that evasive nirvana of employment and economic empowerment.

Agriculture has now been added to this list, spurring hundreds of thousands of people to seek alternative ways of employment.

As usual, many people will be content to try their luck in areas that have been tested and proven successful.

SPORTS ACADEMY

In the midst of all this, an area that continues to be neglected, yet has the biggest potential to deliver jobs and economic emancipation for the youth is sports.

In this year’s Budget, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich allocated some Sh200 million to set up a sports academy.

He also said that the national government would upgrade five regional stadia.

And this after the hue and cry that stakeholders raised when in the last Budget, the Sports and Culture Ministry was allocated only Sh1.9 billion.

HARDWORK REQUIRED

Sports, unlike enterprise, does not promise instant riches.

Sportsmen and women understand that to get ahead requires commitment and steadfast focus.

In sports, even in seemingly individual ones such as athletics, teamwork delivers better results for the competitors.

There is honour in sports, even when one does not necessary come out tops in a competition.

More importantly, sports is what this country needs as we race against time to produce local content for our burgeoning television audience.

This is the one sector that could certainly provide this country with a way out of the current unemployment and underemployment that we find ourselves in.

INVEST IN SPORTS
Sporting, as is clearly demonstrated in other countries, is a great way to productively engage the youth.

It will also provide the National Treasury with a new avenue for raising the much-needed taxes to fund the national Budget.

However, the government must first invest seriously in it. For starters, the Sports and Culture Ministry should be hosted under the Office of the President, where the Presidency will have direct oversight and, therefore, responsibility for this country’s sporting future.

Already, President Uhuru Kenyatta has demonstrated that he is a keen supporter of youth development.

INDUSTRY LEGENDS
Some people may be disillusioned that there is corruption in selected sporting federations, including those managing football, rugby and athletics.

However, this has not stopped Kenya from producing sterling sportspeople like of David Rudisha, Tegla Lorupe, Catherine Ndereba, MacDonald Mariga, Michael Olunga and Dennis Oliech among others.

These and other sports heroes continue to inspire millions of young men and women beyond our borders.

These sports men and women are and will be for the foreseeable future, role models for the youth of this nation.

We, therefore, need to urgently develop and support existing programmes to support the youth to grow their capabilities.

ROLE MODELS

We should not have any instances of athletes being unable to travel for international tournaments due to lack of funds.

Neither should Kenyan sports men and women lack allowances that they justifiably deserve.

To ensure this, there should be a publicly interrogated system that feeds the total needs of all federations into the national sports budget.

Kenyan youth do not want to emulate ‘tenderprenuers’ who effectively erode the moral reasons for participating in politics and business in the first place. They have better role models in the sporting world.

BOLSTER INFRASTRUCTURE

Secondly, the government must invest in sporting programmes, go beyond the stadiums, brick, mortar and turf to encourage growth of talent.

There is no need to have soccer, rugby and athletic stadia when we do not have a structured, fully-funded programme to develop the sportsmen and women using those facilities.

This will be like building a standard gauge railway without the train or traders who will use the infrastructure to transport their goods.

Thirdly, we need a robust, accountability and disciplined mechanism that the individuals tasked with running these institutions are subjected to.

Once these programmes are running well and produce athletes and other participants who display exceptional sporting skills and deliver entertainment value, corporate sponsors will check in and put money into sports.

BUILDING A CAREER
This way, the sporting apathy in tertiary learning institutions will end.

Talent pools like universities will also be keen to offer students sporting scholarships.

That way, youngsters like Felix Mutashi who aspires to join AFC Leopards, will wear the coveted team jersey and get to play internationally, further cementing Kenya’s position as a breeder and exporter of great sporting talent, which incidentally also forms part of the Diaspora that is known to remit billions of shillings back home every year.

Over to you Bwana Wario! The ball is in your court.

The writer is a communications practitioner and can be reached on [email protected]