Age-cheating thrives unabated in School Games

The 15th edition of the East African Secondary School Games ended in Eldoret Saturday evening with Kenyan teams, as widely expected, winning the overall title.

In football, Kenya entered strong sides which had exhibited their worth at the national ball games in Kisumu in July.  

At the nationals, Laiser Hill from the Metropolitan Region defeated Siaya’s Barding Secondary School in the final, while Passenga edged out western Kenya-based Bukembe High to emerge third in the boys’ category.

Consequently, these four institutions qualified to compete at the week-long Eldoret tournament that attracted top young talent from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

Meanwhile, perennial winners St John's Kaloleni won the girls national title after defeating Wiyeta Girls from the Nzoia Region in the final.

Barding on Saturday edged out Ugandan powerhouse St Mary's Kitende by a solitary goal to bag the prestigious regional boys’ title.

Rwanda’s GS Remera claimed the girls’ title.

Considering Kitende’s dominance over the years, the results in Eldoret were received with surprise.

For ardent sports fanatics, these games offer an opportunity to witness upcoming stars in various sporting disciplines first hand.

Some of the big name Kenyan players who shone at the school games include, Kenya captain and former Kamukunji High School star Victor Wanyama, ex-Harambee Stars skippers Musa Otieno (now assistant coach of the national team) an alumnus of Ofafa Jericho High School and Dennis Oliech (Kamukunji High).

Others are Patrick Oboya, Sweden-based Michael Olunga who represented Upper Hill High School at the games not so long ago, Gor Mahia’s Eric Ouma, Joseph Okumu (who recently signed for South Africa’s top tier side Free State Stars). Both donned the famous Kakamega High School’s Green Commandos jersey.

The School Games are bound by rules.

In this case, the prominent regulations touch on age-cheating and forgery.

For instance, all players in the school games must be aged below 19 years, and provide proof of being a student of the school he/she represents.

Some of these rules were enforced to offer a level playing ground.

It was felt that Ugandan and the rest of the East African region sides enjoyed unfair advantage as they could field older A-level students in their teams.

The Kenyan system offers O-level education where students stay in secondary school for four years, two less than their regional counterparts.

However, this  “disadvantage” seems to have provided the basis of cheating and forgery by the Kenyan representatives.

For example,  Barding High, under the guidance of former Tusker FC assistant coach tactician George Owoko, paraded a totally different team at the East African games from the one that emerged second at the National games in Kisumu.

However difficult to prove, could it be that the institution fielded a weaker team at the Nationals while leaving behind a star-studded squad for the more difficult to win regional games? If so, supposing the team failed to make it for this stage?

Also, national champions Laiser Hill fielded one Jaffery Owiti in their first match against Passenga High School. Owiti plies his trade as a striker for SportPesa Premier League side Chemelil Sugar.

He even featured for Kenya in a friendly match in Nairobi against Tanzania in June.

Records show that Owiti cleared his O Level education at St Ignatius High School, Mukumu in Kakamega County last year. Surprisingly, he was registered to compete for Laiser as Timothy Oduor this time round.

This peculiarity was highlighted on social media. Responding, one of the teachers indicated that it was a technical oversight and that indeed Owiti was registered as a Form Five student at the school.

It however, still beats logic for a student to study in Kajiado and at the same time work in Chemelil in a different county.

In another instance, Passenga High School had Daniel Likoko in their ranks, a goalkeeper attached to second tier league side Nakuru AllStars. Likoko was however registered as Shadrack Ojijo to compete at the East Africa Games.

The same institution also had Edward Mwaura, who incidentally emerged top scorer during 2014 National Games final held in Kakamega with seven goals. At that time however, he was referred to as one Samuel Kuku.

These irregularities were also noted in the girls’ competition, where St John’s Kaloleni had one Elizabeth Wambui, whom records indicate is a student at Olympic High School but happened to be registered as Jackline Biyayi this time round.

These are just some of the cases that were easily identifiable.

When contacted, Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association (FEASSSA) secretary general David Ngugi stopped short of admitting the association was powerless to stop the rampant cheating.

Ngugi said: “I think we are our worst enemies in cheating because we want to win at all costs and end up covering the vice. It is a pity some officials work in tandem with the teachers to promote this vice.”

A teacher who spoke to SundayNation Sport off the record, also admitted that cheating is the norm and on this occasion, the Kenya Secondary School Sports Association (KSSSA) encouraged it to ensure Kenya bags more accolades as the host of the competition.  

UNDUE ADVANTAGE

“We were briefed before the tournament and told we do everything possible to ensure we (Kenya) emerge winners. We were allowed to have three non students in all our teams and this has been happening only that it’s being highlighted now,” the teacher revealed. 

The teacher added: “The rest of the countries come with big and more mature players and this has always given them undue advantage. Kenyans had to device a way to ensure they match them, hence cheating and sadly this starts from the zonal level. The competition has become so intense even between the Kenyan teams and the stakes are high. This has ruined everything,” he added.

In fact, there have been reports of schools recruiting villagers and paying them allowances just to gain temporary success, promotions and per diems for the teachers, a situation that does more harm than good. 

Worryingly, these vices have since spilled over to our national teams. Kenya was in April banned from competing in the U-17 continental football tournament for fielding “ineligible players”. The players were actually over age, a situation that elicited a warning from President Uhuru Kenyatta. The vice of age-cheating should stop.