Junior athletes have done us proud, MPs disappointing
What you need to know:
- It’s despicable for these MPs to demand business class tickets to Russian five-star hotels, claiming they are "representing the country," yet Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic flew economy on several trips to motivate her national team that went all the way to Sunday’s final.
- I wish JKIA security could allow us to carry rotten eggs and bouquets of flowers into the arrivals terminal, rotten eggs to project onto the faces of these MPs, and the flowers for our world-beating junior athletes.
The last few days demonstrated the global power of sport in uniting the world and unlocking erstwhile unwarranted socio-political blockades.
Just Monday, while launching his sister Dr Auma Obama’s Sauti Kuu Foundation sports and vocational centre in his ancestral Siaya home, former US president Barack Obama extolled the virtues of sport in building good character.
Sport made one of the most down-to-earth presidents, once the most powerful man on earth, mingle and throw high-fives on a basketball court with little boys and girls from Alego Nyang’oma, who hitherto never dreamt of coming close to an American embassy official, let alone meet a celebrated former US president.
President Obama pointed out that regardless one’s wealth or social standing, on the field of play sport is a great equaliser as it boils down to whether or not you can play. Period.
In similar fashion, Russia’s successful hosting of the Fifa World Cup blew away pre-tournament scepticism and watered down attacks on the Kremlin’s ability to organise a major, incident-free mega sports event in a country considered bereft of civil liberties and political rights.
President Vladmir Putin’s granting of free entry to all World Cup fan ID holders for the rest of the year after a successful tournament was the icing on the cake after the Kremlin pulled off the biggest public relations coup since the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
France’s win and football’s latest superstar Kylian Mbappe’s arrival on the big stage portend exciting times ahead for "association football" that has revolved too much, over the last decade, on a Ronaldo-Messi staple, offering little else for variety’s sake.
Amid the crescendo of the Luzhniki din, one would be forgiven for missing out on the excitement of other mega sporting dates, such as the iconic Wimbledon men’s and women’s finals, the Tour de France and Filipino boxing legend Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao’s victory over WBA welterweight champion, big-punching Argentine Lucas Matthysse, in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
For Kenya, the huge performance of our athletes at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, was a huge statement on the country’s track and field potential.
It mitigated against the recent spell of negative reports from Kenya on positive doping tests that seriously dented our enviable image.
It was reassuring watching Solomon Lekuta, George Manang’oi, Edward Zakayo, Rhonex Kipruto, Beatrice Chebet and Celliphine Chespol race to gold medals in Tampere and catapulting Kenya to the top of the medal standings at the conclusion of the championships on Sunday.
A big thumbs up too to Ng’eno Kipng’etich, Stanley Waithaka, Leonard Bett and Miriam Cherop for panning silvers and Justus Soget for the bronze medal.
These medals pushed Kenya past traditional athletics giants USA and Jamaica.
Credit must go to Athletics Kenya, through it’s president Jack Tuwei, chief executive Susan Kamau, youth committee head Barnabas Korir and team manager Evans Bosire, for weaving together a fledgling team that floored the rest of the world.
But even then, these officials need to find ways of ensuring that teams to such competitions are adequately kitted, and in time, to avoid unnecessary sideshows that seem to feature perennially in Kenya’s lop-sided kitting deal with Nike.
Just as we are glorifying Didier Deschamps for leading les bleus to World Cup victory in Russia, so should we celebrate our under-20 athletics head coach Robert Ng’isirei for a job well done in Tampere.
And while we give credit to Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa and his PS Kirimi Kaberia for spending the week in the Kenyan camp in Tampere, motivating the youngsters to the coveted title, barbs must be hurled the way of our serially blundering MPs who latched onto business class tickets to enjoy five-star treatment in Moscow on the taxpayer’s tab. Allegedly to benchmark.
I’m willing to wager my retirement benefits that nothing tangible will come out of these legislators’ Russian World Cup junket.
If each one of them could take the cue from Dr Obama and set up sports centres in their respective constituencies, then we wouldn’t mind if the entire National Assembly, including sergeant-at-arms, fly first class, imbibe single-malt whisky, dine and reside in five-star hotels to benchmark at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
It will be money well spent.
It’s despicable for these MPs to demand business class tickets to Russian five-star hotels, claiming they are "representing the country," yet Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic flew economy on several trips to motivate her national team that went all the way to Sunday’s final.
I wish JKIA security could allow us to carry rotten eggs and bouquets of flowers into the arrivals terminal, rotten eggs to project onto the faces of these MPs, and the flowers for our world-beating junior athletes.
Makori is the Editor - Sports at Nation Media Group: [email protected]
