Is Ababu the magic bullet we’ve all been waiting for?
Nominee for Youth Affairs, Aports and Arts Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba when he appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Appointments on October 21, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Is Ababu the magic bullet we’ve all been waiting for? Mm. I do, as a general rule, try to steer clear of such predictions, but, let’s wait and see, shall we?
Here we are, then. The Sports Cabinet Secretary has regenerated as Ababu Namwamba and even though he can’t make the chaos in local sports magically go away, he is definitely the least-worse choice when you compare him to some of his predecessors from the last few seasons.
Will he be able to overturn and reverse the sports crisis in the country? Well, that is very much an open question.
His enormous in-tray underlines that, and in any case, he faces a task that is probably beyond anyone.
As we speak, football, the country’s most popular and most widely followed sporting discipline is dead.
Harambee Stars have not played a match for more than a year and the local league is in limbo.
Talented local footballers are fleeing in droves to once despised leagues such as the Tanzanian and Ethiopian ones, and those who remain have had to find alternative sources of income to survive, since no local footballer gets meaningful pay anymore.
The athletics stable is also gently degenerating. The doping menace is now at its peak, with more than 30 athletes busted this year alone, and more runners getting caught almost every day.
In fact, rumour has it that Kenya could get banned from major competitions in the coming years if nothing changes.
Things are not any better at rugby. Teams are opting out of top flight action and choosing instead to direct resources to nurturing youth talent.
Which doesn’t make proper sense because, we are nurturing the young blood so that they can compete where? In the weakened leagues?
Sponsorship for teams and leagues remains a dream, as corporates continue shying away due to the chaos surrounding local sports.
In fact, all federations, with the exception of none, are enduring either one problem or the other. Many have required the help of caretaker committees in the last two years to put their houses in order, but challenges still abound.
The Sports Act, which was conceptualised by Ababu himself, remains a much hated animal, and compliance continues to be a song few federation heads want to join in.
It is, therefore, hugely to the Ruto administration’s credit that we finally have a knowledgeable person on the seat. I feel compelled to state that Ababu’s appointment does not in any way mean that the crisis is over.
In some respects, it has merely entered a new phase that may be little more complex.
As he gets his feet properly under the table, he will have to make a choice. On the football front, he can cut off all members of the previous Football Kenya Federation office and cast away members of the caretaker and transition committees, or most likely, he can attempt a blend of the two forces.
The reputational harm that the football caretaker committees have done former CS Amina Mohammed will certainly be something for him to avoid, and how he handles this particular crisis will be a key deciding moment in his tenure as sports CS.
Kenyans are begging for sanity in local sport.
Is Ababu the magic bullet we’ve all been waiting for? Mm. I do, as a general rule, try to steer clear of such predictions, but, let’s wait and see, shall we?
