Good governance will wipe way mediocrity within federations

What you need to know:

  • We lastly insinuated that there will be little change in our squalor whether it be him or Kaberia in charge
  • This has been the grand concern for many Kenyans and even at one time Harambee Stars travelled at the last minute on some miraa plane while on their way to West Africa to honour an away match
  • The World Cup qualifiers are on the way, Harambee Stars have been grouped with Uganda Rwanda, and Mali

Last week in this space, we welcomed the new sports Principal Secretary Joe Okudo to his new role in the sports ministry.

We wished off the former PS Kirimi Kaberia and flatly told him we will not miss him in the sports docket. We wished him well in his new posting to the mining ministry and hoped he will make it possible to mine the core of the earth if he so thinks.

We reminded the incoming PS that he is not new to the ministry since he was in charge of the culture docket under the tenure of Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario.

He must have had a whiff of the scandal that rocked the Rio Olympics where lots of irregularities occurred and that we wished him to stop that. We told him about the state of stadiums and rotting pitches all over the country that urgently need mending. We told him, in short, that the sports and especially football is on its death bed. We lastly insinuated that there will be little change in our squalor whether it be him or Kaberia in charge.

Now, the last implication did not go well with many readers and the response was overwhelming. Many have accused this writer of being very pessimistic and not allowing the new PS to do his job and show his capabilities.

The readers were all level minded and cool. We cannot quote all of them but one Maurice Mudeheri went further and gave a very good suggestion.

He wrote: “Your article in today’s Nation refers. Whether it is Kaberia or Okudo it does not matter. Sports associations should know that when dealing with money from the Government there are two things: 1) Plan ahead — do not just appear in a week’s or month’s time and expect to get money; 2) Accounting for money received in full before asking for more money.

“If the associations do not understand these, there will be quarrels no matter who is in the seat.”

Now we do not know Mudeheri nor where he works; we just sense that he was very right on this matter especially at this time and space. This has been the grand concern for many Kenyans and even at one time Harambee Stars travelled at the last minute on some miraa plane while on their way to west Africa to honour an away match. They lost the match of course. We blamed the sports ministry for releasing funds late only to realise later that the FKF had formally asked for the funds at the last minute.

We are yet to account for the money spent by the national team in Egypt for the Afcon.

The World Cup qualifiers are on the way, Harambee Stars have been grouped with Uganda Rwanda, and Mali. It is time to start putting the house in order so that the qualifiers go as smoothly as possible.

Thank you Mudeheri.