Now that party's over, let’s take action to avoid to stop another sports debacle

All’s well that ends well. Controversies over corruption and mismanagement threatened to spoil the party, but Kenya’s team to Rio 2016 comes home with its head held high after arguably Kenya’s most successful Olympic Games ever.

Yes, we can afford to celebrate and laud the athletes who have done us proud. We can thank them for again reminding us what patriotism and pride in being Kenyan is all about.

In our glorious sportsmen and women, we have ambassadors and role models who earn this country more global recognition than can be purchased on Donald Trump’s campaign propagandists Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly.

The successes of Rio de Janeiro were particularly poignant against the blighted background.

Our heroes ignored the distractions and reminded us that hard work, commitment, and determination pays off. That applies to any field of human endeavour as it does to sports.

Their success is the story of triumph over adversity and it shows that were bungling and corrupt sports and government officials removed, we can do even better.

It is, therefore, imperative that after the celebrations, a serious independent inquiry be appointed. The issues already publicly aired cannot be investigated by the Sports Ministry or by the team management. The accused cannot be asked to investigate themselves.

There is also the big elephant in the room: doping. The spread of performance-enhancing drugs in Kenyan athletics blights the country’s crown jewel.

Unfortunately, too many of us prefer to hold up the fake nationalism card when European media outlets expose the creeping rot in our athletics training camps.

Ahead of the Olympics, the government had to push through emergency anti-doping legislation to save us the humiliation of being sanctioned and barred from Rio.

HIGH-PROFILE ARRESTS

There were also a number of high-profile arrests and prosecutions, but they look like PR efforts to placate the international anti-doping watchdogs.

In the wake of some media exposés, I was distressed to hear Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario, Athletics Kenya (AK) officials, and even politicians fulminating against supposed foreign media attempts to sabotage Kenyan athletics.

There were even threats to ban media and foreign athletes from the famous training camps in Iten and Eldoret. Such a ham-fisted approach would only give the appearance of something to hide.

A big disappointment for me was that even our media got into the game of denials and finger-pointing, as evidenced with the sports journalists trotted out on TV to react to the latest damaging reports as Rio 2016 opened.

I was reminded of the strange situation last year when leading athletics agent, Federico Rosa, was suspended by Athletics Kenya following the large number of doping cases coming out of his camp. Instead of Kenyan media investigating the goings-on, we came out with PR pieces whitewashing him as crusader against doping in sports.

Needless to say, AK swiftly lifted the suspension, but then the government was forced to move with criminal prosecution ahead of the Rio Games.

The issue, for me, is not the intention of the Western press, nor the timing of the damaging reports. It is simply whether doping is becoming rife in Kenyan sports. The number of failed drug tests over the past few years do not lie.

The solution should be severe criminal penalties and the culpable athletics agents being stripped of the licence to manage Kenyan runners.

Then there is the side issue of the women’s 3000m steeplechase. As she took to the winners’ rostrum, I wondered on Twitter whether Ruth Jebet would manage her new Bahrain national anthem.

The reaction was instantaneous: my “friends” and “followers” were in near unanimity that Jebet had every right to run for her adopted country. Most cited the corruption and mismanagement of Kenyan sports and the failure to properly reward athletes.

But of course all acknowledged that the primary motivation was money. Now, I have no problems with anyone changing nationality. There are many Kenyans who have switched citizenship and proudly represent their new countries. However, I do wonder where one draws the line between legitimate change of allegiance and pure mercenary motivation. I noticed that those most in support of Jebet were also the loudest social media trumpets on nationalism and patriotism.

[email protected]; Twitter: @MachariaGaitho