Echesa’s Cuban MoU good for Kenyan sport

What you need to know:

  • In the few days he has been in office, Echesa has so far given an indication that he has what it takes to lift Kenyan sport to the next level, especially with his handling of the land grabbing at the Moi International Sports Centre and the in-roads he’s making with the Cubans.
  • He shouldn’t lose the momentum. Well done, waziri! So far so good.

Cuba has produced some of the world’s most colourful sporting champions, especially in track and field, volleyball, baseball and boxing.

Some of the top boxers from Havana include Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon, who each won three Olympic gold medals, former world welterweight champion the “Cuban Hawk” Kid Gavilan and Hall of Famer Ultiminio “Sugar” Ramos.

In track and field, Ivan Pedroso, a four-time world champion and 2000 Olympics long jump champion, Javier Sotomayor, who holds the world record in the high jump (two metres, 45 centimetres) stand out along with Alberto Juantorena who became the first man to win both the 400 and 800 metres at the Olympic Games in 1976 at the Montreal.

Beijing Olympics (2008) 110 hurdles champion and former world record holder Dayron Robles is also among the stellar cast of Cuban athletes with three times Olympic gold medal winner, middle blocker Regla Torres, one of the world’s all-time best volleyball players.

Cuba has also excelled in baseball, the country’s most popular local sport, with stars such as pitchers Orlando Hernandez, Jose Contreras and first baseman Yulieski Gourriel Castillo shining in USA’s Major League Baseball.

That’s why it offered hope to see Sports and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa sign a Memorandum of Understanding with his Cuban counterpart Antonio Eduardo Becali Garrido last Thursday that will see Kenya benefit from the Cuban sporting success.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa (left) and Principal Secretary Kirimi Kaberia (centre) with Cuban National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation President Antonio Eduardo Becali Garrido when the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding for sports exchanges between Havana and Nairobi in Havana on March 15, 2018. PHOTO | COURTESY |

Exchanges in expertise in the organization of sports programmes, training and development of coaches and specialists, academic exchange, sports medicine and community sports are some of the areas covered in the MoU that was signed at the Cuban National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), the institution that runs Cuban sport.

Others areas of exchange in this historic partnership will include anti-doping, sports management and the application of computer science in sport.

That President Uhuru Kenyatta also opened Kenya’s embassy in Havana will also fast track this exchange which will, hopefully, be quick to take off thanks to another MoU signed by Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma and her Cuban counterpart Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla on visa exemption for nationals of the two countries.

It is through such diplomatic exchanges that Kenyan sport can grow, given the technical inadequacies that we continue to endure in most of our disciplines.

Next week, Kenya will send a contingent of over 200 athletes for the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, with many of the competitors travelling to merely make up the numbers and for “affirmative action.”

With the Commonwealth Games Federation having granted Kenya slots sports such as table tennis, badminton, wrestling, weight-lifting, bowling, triathlon and swimming, many of those travelling will be eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

Simply because our standards of play in these disciplines is way below the global standards.

Such standards can only improve with technical input from well-heeled nations that have a history of positive performance.

As a way forward Echesa and Juma must forge closer working relations to cash in on Kenya’s diplomatic ties to help improve our sport.

Sino-Kenyan conversations, for instance, should be punctuated by sports exchanges that can help improve our table tennis standards, while interactions with the USA should also include proposals on how the USA’s world famous National Basketball Association league, along with the collegiate championship, can assist Kenyan ball players.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa walks past a poster of Cuba’s legendary boxer Teofilo Stevenson at the Cuban National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation in Havana. Echesa has ordered an audit of Boxing Association of Kenya ahead of their January elections. PHOTO | COURTESY |

We hope to see fruits of the Junior NBA programme launched last year and supported by Ford Motor Corporation and the US Embassy in Nairobi. Having Kenyan players break into the collegiate game and, hopefully, the NBA league will be a huge motivation for the further development of the game.

And rather that castigate Kenyan athletes defecting to country’s such as Bahrain and Qatar, we ought to warm up to these Gulf nations that can play a pivotal role in the development of Kenyan sports infrastructure.

It’s a pity that Kenyan officials failed to take up the 2004 offer by Qatar to construct a world-class stadium in Eldoret following warm relations between Nairobi and Doha that followed the change of nationality by Kenya-born steeplechase world record holder Stephen Cherono (Saif Saaeed Shaheen).

“I met His Highness The Crown Prince of Qatar and he has said they will build for us a track and field stadium in Eldoret. This is as a result the co-operation that has been established between Qatar and Kenya,” Kenya’s then sports minister Najib Balala said in January, 2004.

It’s a pity the Eldoret project failed to take off, which is why we hope to see the latest Nairobi-Havana exchanges developing into a tangible co-operation.

In the few days he has been in office, Echesa has so far given an indication that he has what it takes to lift Kenyan sport to the next level, especially with his handling of the land grabbing at the Moi International Sports Centre and the in-roads he’s making with the Cubans.

He shouldn’t lose the momentum. Well done, waziri! So far so good.