Why Talanta Hela project could give kiss of life to Kenya’s ailing football

With upsets galore, the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) playing out in Cote d’Ivoire has demonstrated that there are no longer “small football nations” on the continent. There are only nations with “small football mentalities.”

Interestingly, countries that previously played second fiddle to our own Harambee Stars are now calling the shots in Abidjan and other Ivorian cities at Africa’s biggest footballing showcase.

Many will recall Dennis “the Menace” Oliech’s 2003 screamer that silenced Cape Verde at Kasarani and placed the Harambee Stars firmly on the journey to the 2004 Afcon finals in Tunisia.

Harambee Stars’ faithful will also remember Oliech doing the damage at the October 5 Stadium in the Tunisian seaside city of Bizerte as Harambee Stars earned their first Afcon victory, a 3-0 hammering of Burkina Faso, with man-of-the-match Oliech scoring once and turning provider twice.

So impressed were Qatar football officials that they showed up at Stars’ hotel lobby in Bizerte, dangling a Sh200 million carrot for the sensational striker to take up Qatari citizenship, an offer Oliech turned down.

In 2002, Oliech had been on the scoresheet again at Mwanza’s CCM Kirumba Stadium as Kenya edged out Tanzania 3-2 to lift their fifth Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, then under coach Jacob “Ghost” Mulee who also led the Stars to the 2004 Tunisia finals.

Oliech indeed deserves to be in the VIP boxes in Cote d’Ivoire as part of a cast of legends flown to Abidjan to celebrate African football. But how times have changed!

Our football has been on a free-fall, just like our cricket which scaled to the dizzy heights of a World Cup semi-final - losing by 91 runs to a fired-up Indian side led by Saurav Ganguly (111 runs off 114 balls) and Sachin Tendulkar (83 off 101) - in Durban in 2003.

Or indeed like our national men’s hockey team which also lost in the semis of the World Cup in 1971, also to India, 1-2 in Barcelona, at the time ranking us fourth overall in the world.

Currently, making the top four in East and Central African hockey is a tall order, something that must make the legends of 1971 turn in their graves.

And just like in cricket where Bangladesh - a nation we dominated in the one-day version - have since ascended to Test status as we languish in the lower echelons of the African game, our erstwhile whipping boys in football are now chilling with the big boys in Cote d’Ivoire as we watch from the sidelines.

Cape Verde have coasted into the Round of 16 while Burkina Faso are also on the cusp of progressing after their 1-0 win over Mauritania and 1-1 draw with Algeria whom, interestingly, Kenya also floored 3-2 on aggregate in World Cup qualification in 1996, winning 3-1 at Kasarani and restricting the Desert Foxes to a 1-0 win in the reverse fixture at the Stade 5 Juillet in the Algiers.

Tanzania’s “Taifa Stars” are in it with a shout, thanks to their 1-1 draw with Zambia on Sunday night and now need to conjure up a win in their final group game against the Democratic Republic of Congo tomorrow to have a realistic chance of sneaking into the last 16.

Well, at least we have qualified for the 2027 Afcon by default, as hosts, and can ride on that backyard opportunity to grow our game.

That’s why Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba’s pet project – the Talanta Hela Initiative – could, after all, be a great foundation for our journey to rejoin the big boys.

Namwamba’s passion for age-group football and monetizing talent, coupled with the government’s sports masterplan that seeks to improve infrastructure at international, regional and community levels augurs well for the future of Kenyan football.

Already success stories from the Talanta Hela initiative are sprouting, especially after the National Holiday Talent Camp hosted for 2,000 young, talented schoolboys and girls last year at the Kenya Academy of Sports.
Wake up from slumber

The Talanta Hela Under-19 Championships, won by Homa Bay County (boys) and Busia County (girls), along with the Under-18 Junior Stars who reached the final of the Cecafa Under-18 Championships hosted in Kisumu and Kakamega were rich hunting grounds for our age-group football.

That the Talanta Hela platform midwifed Kenya’s Under-17 and Under-20 national teams, which Namwamba says will be entered for the Fifa Under-17 and Under-20 World Cup qualifiers for both boys and girls, is reassuring. With such government interest and support, it behoves the beleaguered Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to wake up from their slumber, steer clear of petty politics and augment these efforts.

We hope to see FKF’s eagerly-awaited elections expedited this year to usher in officials who should place country before self, and who appreciate that the country, and football, are much bigger than bloated egos.

The government’s current efforts to revive football deserve our support and must not be sacrificed on the altar of greed and self-gratification. We must start building a formidable national team that will fight for the continental title on home soil in 2027 and not merely make up the numbers.

Success on and off the pitch in a home Afcon will set us firmly on the road to a maiden appearance at the Fifa World Cup finals in 2030.

There are no two ways about this.

Makori is the Lead Editor (Sports and Integration Projects) at Nation Media Group. [email protected]