Our sports problems run deeper than any new regime can resolve

Studying the behaviour of Kenyans can earn you a PhD.

No, not a Doctor of Philosophy gained at university, but Permanent Head Damage obtained trying to understand the mind of a Kenyan.

A Gallup International End of Year Survey released at the beginning of 2003 showed that Kenyans were the most optimistic people in the world.

The survey was done during the months of November and December 2002, when the country was in the threshold of campaigns for new national leaders.

The polls saw President Moi and Kanu’s oppressive rule come to an end and the beginning of the Mwai Kibaki era.

New ways of doing things were promised under an anti-corruption crusade, but it took just a few years for the promise to die.

No less than one of Kibaki’s chief lieutenants John Michuki confessed they had all along been mostly interested in wresting power from Moi.

Fast forward to September 2019, a Global Optimism Outlook Survey found Kenyans to be the “most optimistic” people in Africa.

I need not remind you that, ironically, at that time Kenya’s economy, saddled by heavy public debt, high unemployment, poor productivity et al, was in HDU under the care of the dynamic duo UhuRuto.

We have just come from a highly contested presidential election that was won by the self-styled hustler William Ruto.

Whereas he has been accused of corruption and using the system to accumulate extensive wealth, many others see him as the saviour of Kenya.

He has himself talked of state capture and the faceless cartels that impoverish Kenyans and how he will dismantle these nefarious enterprises and turn around the desperately poor lives of the common Kenyan.

Dejected, disillusioned, desperate, disgruntled but now offered hope by his rosy campaign promises.

You might be wondering where I am going with this in a sports column.

Ruto was handed the reins of power yesterday to tumultuous reception at Kenya’s grandest sports arena, Moi International sports Centre.

Many Kenyans are optimistic that he will fix the many problems afflicting Kenyan sports including, of course that most beloved of games in the country, football.

We have been under a Fifa international ban since November last year.

Some voices are blaming the outgoing regime for the woes afflicting our game which they feel will be magically solved if Kenya is reinstated by Fifa to the world football family.

But don't these people get it? Kenya’s football problems did not start with the UhuRuto government.

From the time the Kenya Football Federation was formed in 1960 replacing Football Association of Kenya, feuds, wide spread mismanagement, lack of accountability and financial malpractice has been the name of the game.

Ponder this. Since independence, the government has disbanded the federation because of corruption and ineptitude, and formed a caretaker committee no less than five times, while other attempts to break up the football body have been thwarted by the courts.

Tower of Babel

Ask yourself why despite having laws governing how sports is run in this country coupled with the constitutions of the individual federations, our sports bodies have generally resembled the Tower of Babel.

In 2013, Parliament enacted the much anticipated Sports Act under which all sporting entities in the country now operate under.

The Act was expected to solve the financial and management problems bedevilling our sports body.

But surprise, surprise, almost 10 years later several federations and clubs have not met the provisions of this act with some even arguing it is not practicable to conform to its requirements.

Does that not tell us that something is fundamentally wrong with those people who manage sports in this country?

Many of them are volunteers who have ingrained the culture of weak governance and political patronage that has ensured that sports management remains a, well, mismanagement.

Once, when I was doing some part-time work for the Kenyan Premier League I suggested that after every transfer window they publish all the movements of the players and the payouts.

That this was for accountability, you know, to keep the record straight. I was told in no uncertain terms that most club owners/managers were averse to the fees being published.

Interestingly, management of these same clubs are the ones that vehemently demand accountability from the federation.

It is very much a Kenyan trait, illustrated by how motorists behave on our roads. They break the traffic rules with impunity but are quick to show their displeasure if you infringe on their rights on the road.

Makes you wonder what exactly are our value systems. You will get a PhD trying to understand Kenyans, I tell you.

So, I want to be optimistic that the Kenya Kwanza regime of William Ruto will change Kenyan sports for the better.

However, I am old enough to know that cheese cannot produce chalk. Or maybe it can.

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