KenyanDairies.: The Siege on our Jumbos must end

KenyanDairies.: The Siege on our Jumbos must end: In 1979, Kenya had about 167,000 elephants. In 2016, the population is estimated at about 38,000. Satao, one of the world’s most iconic an...

KenyanDairies.: Kenyan football’s biggest enemy

KenyanDairies.: Kenyan football’s biggest enemy: The past two weekends saw the return of violence to Kenyan football, and now it is full-blown with players, stewards and the fans. ...

Kenyan football’s biggest enemy

The past two weekends saw the return of violence to Kenyan football, and now it is full-blown with players, stewards and the fans.

As obvious as the script reads, once again it is Gor Mahia and their nemesis, AFC Leopards with their near-fanatical crowds that have never learnt to accept refereeing calls made against them.

The AFC Leopards-Ulinzi Stars match in Mumias was aborted in the 84^th minute after Leopards fans, led by a ‘purported’ steward raced into the pitch to dispute a second penalty awarded to the soldiers.

Yakubu Ramadhan, Leopard’s centre-back man-handled the referee in protests as things got out of hand.

A week before, Boniface Olouch, the Gor Mahia custodian shoved the assistant referee in dispute of a penalty awarded to Tusker, at the Nyayo National stadium. 

Crowd trouble followed and the game was halted for some minutes.

Days after the two incidents, Sportpesa suspended their sponsorship to the two clubs

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As the air cools down over the return of goons into the stadiums, Kenya Premier League (KPL) Limited and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) must take huge blame for cordoning the vice.

The two clubs are notorious for crowd trouble whenever things get tough on the pitch. Sadly, there has never been a disciplinary precedent tough and punitive enough to teach them the hard way.

They have been tolerated for long. Those in-charge at FKF and KPL have not read the riot act as this bunch of fans wreaks havoc on the pitch.

But for how long will we slowly watch as a tragedy keeps cooking in our stadiums? Do we love seeing fans die in our stadiums or risk the wrath of Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA)?

We must act. The league cannot go down the drain because of some goons within the AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia families?

The corporate world has come back to financially uplift our game and ensure that the game raises families and improves lives of the players. This must be protected.

Those involved must be careful not to taste the sharpness of the knife with their own thighs! It is dangerous.

If the corporate world takes away the dollars, fans die in our stadiums or FIFA slams us with a ban, Kenyan football will pay the price.

Stewards, players and fans have been captured on camera unleashing terror. Their faces are known and so they must be punished.

It is too dear to imagine. Let KPL and FKF step up to the plate and help slay the demon of violence and hooliganism, whose main culprits are AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia.

The Siege on our Jumbos must end

In 1979, Kenya had about 167,000 elephants. In 2016, the population is estimated at about 38,000.

Satao, one of the world’s most iconic and oldest elephants was butchered by poachers inside Tsavo East National Park, on May 30, 2014. A poisoned arrow ended his life as poachers chased his majestic tusks.

Many more elephants have been killed as rampant poaching has become the constant shadow of death stalking them.

On April 30, 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta will lead the nation in burning 105 tons of illegal ivory, about one ton of rhino horns.

This will be the biggest haul to be burnt in Kenya.  Former president Daniel Moi set ablaze 12 tons of ivory on July 12, 1989.

The events are a testament to the nation’s political resolve to say no to the illegal trade that is threatening the existence of elephants across the world.

According to The Atlantic, United States of America burnt six tons in 2013, China destroyed six tons in 2014 and Hong Kong set out to destroy 28 tons from 2014.

In Africa, Gabon, Mozambique and Ethiopia have followed suit. Sadly, about 100 elephants are killed across Africa daily. Kenya is part of this vicious cycle.

This is more than the number of elephants born each day. Their ivory has turned to be their biggest enemies as poachers viciously hunt them.

The battle is tough as poachers, armed with guns and poisoned arrows stalk our elephants in the bushes of Tsavo national Park and other homes.

According to Kenya Wildlife Service, the nation lost 302 elephants in 2013. This is a grim reality that faces the remaining 38,000 elephants across the country. In 2014, 137 elephants and 24 rhinoceros were lost to poachers.

As Uhuru leads the nation in setting ablaze illegal ivory, rhino horns, skin and hides, efforts to slay poaching must be stepped up.As a nation, we must ask questions beyond the burning of these tons.

The poachers must be nailed, the big boys who traffic these trophies must be nipped and global markets like China, Vietnam and other countries in the Far East must be place on alert.

The loss of elephants spells doom to our tourism which is still chocking since 2014. It is a threat to environmental conservation too.

The priceless efforts and campaigns of conservationists like Dr. Paula Kahumbu must be supported fully by the government.

Corruption and unduepolitical influence should be discouraged. The poachers are our brothers. They live within us and we know their faces.

We choose to hide them and pretend to shed tears when our lovely jumbos are killed. Numerous seizures across different entry and exit points have been made in Kenya.

Is it possible that the faces behind the trafficking are not known? Have punitive measures been instituted against them? We laud Uhuru for tomorrow’s event.

 It is aloud declaration by the government on the political resolve to fight poaching. Beyond the fire, a lot needs to be done to secure our 38,000 elephants that stare at extinction in the face.

 Each day must be devoted to combatting poachers and their moneyed financiers. The government should come clean on the war and unmask the known faces in the trade.

Corruption must be fought too. Undue political interference must be stopped. Punitive measures, deterrent enough must be adopted in legislation and government policies.

The Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2013 must be enforced with full force. If well used, it is punitive enough to deter the culprits involved in the decimation of our jumbos.

 In the future, if Kenya burns similar hauls of illegal ivory, rhino horns and other products, then it will be a harsh indictment on our failure to fight poaching.

We must act and save our elephants. We owe it to these great and intelligent creatures!

A cry for Kenyan Soccer

In the last ten days, two events happened in our much suffering football fraternity and one deserves praise while the other is cause for concern. Our national team qualified for the African Cup of Nations! Sorry, not our mediocre Harambee Stars but our heroines, Harambee Starlets. The team will grace the women’s showpiece in Younde, Cameroun from November 19, to December 3 2016. Under the tutelage of Moses Ouma, the young ladies did what Harambee Stars has failed miserably in since 2004! A tough 13 years in the cold! Barely a week after defeating Sudan in the first leg of the final-round qualifier in Khartoum, our national Under-20 was this week banned for fielding over-age players. This is the joy and pain of being a football lover in this great nation, disappointments and excitement come in equal measure. On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at a packed Safaricom Stadium Kasarani, the nation drowned in a sea of excitement as our girls re-wrote history. But we forgot that we lack a running women’s national league. The determination of the girls with the help of several high schools and universities such as Kenya Methodist University made it possible. The new Football Kenya Federation boss, Nick Mwendwa never told us about any plans to put structures to ensure consistent success in girl’s football. A look at our competitors later in the year in Cameroun shows an elite cast who take women football seriously. Nigeria’s Super Falcons and the hosts are products of proper structures of women soccer in their countries. Kenya must take that tough route and set up proper leagues, from the grassroots to the national levels. This group of talented girls wishes to play on the global stage like their role models. Carli Lloyd, Sydney Leroux, Abby Wambach and Mia Amm from the USA, Birgit Prinz and Nadine Angerer of Germany, Marta Vieira da Silva of Brazil and Lotta Schelin of Sweden among others. These are mercurial players of the modern women’s game. They are the Ronaldinho’s, Messi’s and Christiano Ronaldo’s of the ladies version. We need proper league and age-group structures to make sure that our qualification to the 2016 AFCON is no flash in the pan. Harambee Stars Under-20 was banned for fielding over-age players in their away qualifier to Sudan. Kenya must sanitize the age-group soccer structures. Proper leagues must be put in place and sponsors should be wooed to support them. Currently, we have no structures for various age-group leagues, except the haphazardly organized Kenya Premier League under-20 league which is not a steady league so far. Some years ago, before the former office scarred away the corporate world; Kenya had the Copa Coca Cola tournament that took the best talents to compete against Africa’s best in South Africa. These are the efforts that are needed now, to make sure under-age soccer development in Kenya is on track. Kenya must rise up and take her rightful place in African and global soccer. Harambee Stars will shun mediocrity and stamp authority in African soccer only if we put in proper structures to nature talent through successive age-groups.

The Kenyan wounds that never healed

She was clobbered to near-death and raped. On August 30, 2016, her child will turn 8 years. She is Elizabeth Njeri. Her talk on a local television station greatly contrasted with the political hooting disguised as a prayer rally at Afraha Stadium, Nakuru County.

At Laini Saba in Kibera, Nairobi County, the opposition held its purported prayer rally. In both gatherings where God’s name was soiled, the plight of the victims was used to score political points.

They are the forgotten Kenyans. Children of this great nation whose hope for justice collapsed on the day all the suspects had their cases terminated at The Hague. 

Our politicians play cheap politics with everything. On Saturday, prayer rallies danced upon the graves of innocent souls who were butchered between December 2007 and February 2008.

The media too got lost in the heat and relegated the plight of the victims to the back foot. The talk was all about the politicians. This is the nation where unfortunately the big always have their way and the low are down-trodden upon.

National healing never happened. The Waki Report is still sealed with names of various suspects. The rhetoric is on and elections are around the corner. 

It is a shame that no one has been held to account yet we have Kenyans living in dilapidated camps. They are captives in their own land.

We blatantly refused to pursue the tough road of reconciliation as Rwanda did after the 1994 genocide. This is Kenya where politics transcend everything. 

Our neighbors in Rwanda initiated Gacaca courts which took care of all the small fish involved in the genocide. The big boys such as Jean Kambamba (former prime minister) have already been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. 

The tiny Central African nation can claim that truth and justice which must come before reconciliation, indeed took place. Both local and international efforts made it possible.

Sadly, Kenya failed to learn from them. We chose to roll a carpet over the bitter and fresh wounds we inflicted on our fellow brother and sisters. 

In churches, political rallies and other gatherings, our politicians shout and gloat over how well we have dealt with the matter. Ridiculous at best.

Eight years and two elections later, the Kenyans of a lesser god are living with the nightmares. To some, the little monetary compensation have done little to heal them.

Led by our politicians, a media that chose suspects as the main focus of The ICC trials and a section of religious charlatans who chose to misrepresent God, we became insensitive to the plight of our scarred Kenyans.

Some babies were born out of brutal rape ordeals, children became orphaned, Kenyans lost their property and economic stability, and others cannot go back to their homes in Naivasha and other parts of the nation.

The wounds are fresh and the hatred keeps growing. Political talk ahead of the general elections in 2017 is rife with ethnic undertones! The embers of the post-poll violence are slowly being re-kindled. They might burn us one day if we do not put them off.