AFC LEOPARDS LETTING KENYAN FOOTBALL DOWN.

Business owners and proprietors around Nairobi’s City Stadium are yet to come to terms with their razed and destroyed investments. The venue which played host to the latest show of post-match hooliganism by a rowdy section of AFC Leopards’ faithful. Just as it has been all too common in this year’s Tusker Premier League, TPL 2013 season, this unruly section of Ingw’e faithful has ruined an otherwise decent match. Violence is slowly taking root in the Kenyan game and apparently is happening unabated.  It has happened right under the noses of the Football Kenya Federation and the Kenya Premier League Limited, KPL. Sad scenes and worrisome trends indeed!

The men in the centre no longer make the final decisions but the unruly do. The fans have perfected the art of meting out this entire discontentment. It is football the Kenyan style! This was best exemplified during last month’s Super Eight knock-out clash between Ingw’e and Chemelil Sugar at the Nyayo Stadium as the match entered its closing stages. An enraged fan scaled the perimeter fence and headed straight for the centre referee who had apparently made a wrong call in a game that Ingw’e was losing. This happened as police officers watched. The man even had the audacity to splash beer all over his victim’s face as the police officers took time to respond and players from both teams offered little help to the besieged whistle-man who had to run for his safety.  Events that followed were absolutely ridiculous as AFC Leopards were banned from the stadium and the game awarded to Chemelil Sugar. However days later, Ingw’e were reinstated to the stadium and little or no action taken on these rowdy fans. Kenya Premier League, Football Kenya Federation, Sports Stadium Management Boards and AFC Leoprds then went to sleep and have now been awakened by the latest ugly incident where fans looted and burned business premises around the City Stadium, on Saturday after their team lost  by a solitary goal to Mathare United. So what is next to stem this?

Last season, Gor Mahia fans were the culprits of football violence but seem to have passed it onto their mashemejis.  Over the last few seasons, the beautiful name has not lived up to its name, at least going by what the fans of Kenya’s most successful clubs that command a near religiously fanatical following have been doing.  Violence is what has best described games of the two teams, and sadly lives have been lost in recent derbies at the Nyayo Stadium, most infamously in the 2010 season, whereby a pre-match stampede resulted into the death of at least four fans.  However, it seems our football administrators never learn and little efforts have been made to stem football violence in Kenya. One wonders whether we are really waiting for a Cairo-like disaster when in February 2012, chaos erupted in the infamous Port Said Stadium disaster, which left more than 70 Al- Ahly fans dead and scores of others injured. This was after a fiery Al- Masry versus Al Ahly match, when fans took matters into their own hands and knives, swords, clubs and stones became the weapons of choice as they sought to mete out anger and frustrations onto each other!

In Kenya, Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards fans have used stones to settle matters off the pitch, often leaving innocent business owners, pedestrians and motorists on the receiving end of matters they knew little of. Violence is slowly being accepted as a way of football life in Kenya. This is best exemplified by the casual and hands off approach to matters football violence whenever sections of K’Ogallo and Ingw’e fans turn into fanatics and football maniacs who are out to kill the beautiful game. As a nation, Kenya has proved to be a poor student of history, and disasters have recurred often with devastating losses. But the football fraternity should not wait till it tastes the sharpness of this deadly sword of violence with its own flesh!

It is sad and equally disturbing that the recent gains made in Kenyan football, chief among them being the live broadcasting of premier league matches by pay television channel, Super sport and the rise of Victor Mugubi, Dennis Oliech, Macdonald Mariga and others into Europe’s crème de crème of football have been marred by the hooliganism and uncouth behavior by some fans in the stands. We have silently accepted violence as part of Kenyan football. Just as in any other part on the planet, fans are a responsibility of their clubs. The consequences of unsporting behavior and rowdiness by the fans are passed onto their clubs and this should not be any different when it comes to Kenya.Violent behavior chases away sponsors, scares away some real football fans and gate collection greatly suffers, property is destroyed, clubs are faced with bans and fans can even die. Must we wait for this to happen?

Am sure that the streetwise storylines of Afadhali FIFA isiingilie haya mambo yetu! rule the air whenever violence breaks out on the stadiums. War unto us if the Blatter-led body intervenes because players will sell their boots to youngsters and coaches will switch careers. The ban can be lengthy and equally deterrent. Our already dilapidated footy grounds will turn into green grazing grounds for our cows! This unsporting and uncouth section of AFC Leopards should be nipped in the bud before they land us into serious trouble with FIFA. Am sure that those informed well enough know that FIFA is not as toothless as most of our local commissions of inquiry! Football federations who have crossed roads with FIFA all know this too well and Afc Leopards and Kenyan football administrators should listen to them!

National federations and clubs alike have paid the heavy penalties for their fans violent conduct. The Serbian FA was in December 2012, fined £65,000 when their fans subjected England’s Danny Rose to racism chants during a European under-21 play -off match. Russian and Spanish FAs were handed a combined fine of   £40,355 in June 2012 for improper conduct of their fans. At the club level, Italy’s Lazio and Portugal’s Porto have too been fined as a result of their fans unsporting behavior. In June 2009, Chelsea was fined £85,000 for failing to control its players and fans after a stormy semi-final loss to Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League.

These are just some of the incidents where the unsporting behavior of fans has proved to be a costly affair to their clubs. These European leagues have a near religious following in Kenya, yet on the part of stemming football violence we do not always go the European way. This is a challenge to our football administrators and clubs whose fanatics go march into the stadiums for the sole purpose of causing violence, all done under the guise of cheering on their favorite teams!

Let us join hands and kick violence out of our football fields before FIFA catches up with us!

GREED RELOADED!

The ‘Digital’ tenure has already begun! The cabinet is already in place and working on delivering Jubilee’s pre-election pledges to Kenya. The country is highly expectant and optimistic of the free laptops for primary school pupils and the five modern football stadiums across the country.

However, the 11^th Parliament has been fast off the blocks in delivering the post-election goodies to the Kenyan voter, albeit on the wrong side! They are breathing fire and threatening apocalyptic consequences to whoever threatens to derail their bids of slashing away the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC); the body that they have blamed for their reduced paycheck. The Sarah Serem-led Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has under heavy political gunfire as Nithi legislator, Mithika Linturi ahs not once threatened to sponsor a bill to the Parliament. His cry is that the Serem-led team should be disbanded for flouting constitutional provisions in revising the Mps’ paycheck at the end of the month. And in perhaps what defines the unity of our Cord and Jubilee parliamentarians, Mithika has received unwavering support from both fronts of the house. The 11^th house that had proved to be irreconcilable in the formation of teams to major committees of the house suddenly disappeared into the political clout. This rivalry died and these legislators have come together to slay this white elephant that Serem’s team had suddenly become to them. It is a move that has drawn the ire of the entire nation.  

The last nail on its coffin was perhaps the pig demonstration along Parliament Road. The innocent sow and his family found themselves in the middle of a nasty physical confrontation between the law enforcers and outraged Kenyan demonstrators. The activists were clobbered, pepper water sprayed on them, teargas canisters exploded at their feet as and the innocent animals taken to a safer home within Nairobi. But going by the outrage that Kenyans have poured in the social media, the fight is on and the honorable greed is certain of facing sterner tests, both in the streets and on social media. Just as the Arab revolution that slayed Mubarak, Gaddafi and Ben Ali, the Kenyan revolution might too be retweeted and posted on face book walls. It is a battle that has all the makings of a long and grueling fight, pitting the Mps on one side against an angry Kenyan public, civil society groups, the media et al on the other.

The only legislator who has openly opposed this greedy move is Cherangany Mp and marathon world-beater, Wesley Korir. The rest have been mum albeit to evade public ire. Others like Kiambu legislator, Jude Njomo have threatened to quit their posts over the pay issue. But we are waiting to see if they can make good their threat. However, the consolation that hungry and angry Kenyans have is in the president, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, who has opposed the Mps greed and told them to deliver, before seeking to fatten their wallets.

Take away the hoopla, the ire and anger that the Mps have caused across the country. Let us examine the issue soberly. Our Mps are unrealistic, insensitive and all words that describe their big disconnect from the people whose interests they apparently represent. The economy is still struggling, the legislators’ number has increased from 224 in the 10^th House to the current 340 Mps, the country is grappling with the ticking time-bomb that is unemployment among the youth, Kenyans are living on less than a dollar a day, our police force is in dire need of attention and insecurity is a key national concern, university graduates are decrying the lack of jobs and the country is fighting on all fronts to march towards the Millennium 2030 Goals.

It is sad and unfortunate that our Mps may be at pains to accept the new Kenya, where salaries in the public service are controlled by the SRC, but it is the new constitution at work. These are some of the ‘hard truths’ and ‘bitter pains’ that we unanimously voted in and promulgated at Uhuru Park on 27 August 2010. Our Mps, even after seeing their salaries and perks greatly reduced by the SRC are still among the world’s highest paid legislators, even more than their British, American and French counterparts. The perplexing irony in this awkward reality is that the above are all first-world countries where the economy is mega stable yet ours is still on its knees, struggling for stability. One might be forgiven for thinking that Kenyans pay taxes and struggle to grow our economy just to pay our Mps. The Kenyan Mp has been a lucrative job and career path that does nots call for so much academic qualifications.

In Kenya, being a member of the August House has for long been a moneyed career, whereby people seek it under the guise of working for the ordinary mlala hoi. A fact that has best been exemplified by this Linturi-led onslaught, disguised as a move to disband a law-defiant commission. Our legislators should tone down on their undesirable desire for more money from the public coffers, and instead come down to earth and the bitter Kenya, whereby citizens are gnashing their teeth and cursing as the cost of living shoots through the roof, with every dawn. They should show this undeterred determination and commitment in formulating policies and creating an enabling legal environment upon which the economy will tremendously grow, as investors, both local and international pump more money into our economy.

Meanwhile, the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) has handed its report to President Uhuru Kenyatta. Just as expected, influential Kenyans and politicians have been adversely mentioned and the correct action recommended. As a nation, we are eager to see whether the Bethwel Kipalng’at-led to gather dust in the shelves.

Politics of euphoria

Good people, I must laud you for keeping the peace and tranquility despite a closely contested presidential election. The dust is slowly settling on the hoopla that clouded these 4 March elections. Uhuru Kenyatta won aboard the Jubilee coalition, but CORD has since moved to the Supreme Court to challenge the validity of the victory. The country is waiting with baited breath for the ruling by the highest court on the land. The petition can either succeed or be quashed away by the court. But this is story for another day.  

Pre-election coalitions were formed to consolidate votes and some incumbents who were sure to face the axe on March 4 rode on the euphoria of these coalitions and their presidential candidates. But truth be told these honorable men and women are just rode these Jubilee, CORD and Amani trains to their destinations and once they got there, alighted without sparing a minute to know what happened to these political bandwagons. This is the typical opportunistic Kenyan politician!

Kenyans, who trek to and from Industrial are since used seeing to political rivals, share one thing; choppers.  These group of politicians come from the leafy Nairobi suburbs, are current or former holders of key positions in the Moi and Kibaki governments. They never instituted any change, yet they made all noise that they are reform friendly. These guys have deep and rich connections that maintain their wealth that no Kenyan ever asks how they acquired. They own huge chunks of land, while Kenyans lack a place to build their houses and are busy slitting each other’s throat as they fight over pieces of land to graze their livestock and put up houses. The few who get land around the capital, such as in Syokimau have been traumatized watching their hard-earned investments come down under the hail of bulldozers. These houses have been labeled illegal by some authorities hence the use of these mighty tractors to crush them.

Whenever they get health complications, our classy politicians travel to the US and other western countries for treatment. Their children never see the doors of public schools but go to private schools, both in Kenya and abroad. Public health facilities are in deplorable conditions, babies are stolen minutes after birth; nurses and doctors must go on strike to demand better pay, modern facilities and enough medication for their patients. Funds meant for the free primary education mysteriously disappear yet nobody claims responsibility.

Corruption reigns supreme in the government institutions and nobody is willing to fight it. Our police force is ill-equipped, poorly remunerated and when they are butchered on the trail of cattle-rustlers, nobody hears their cry or that of their crest-fallen families. At the backdrop of all these stark disparities between the rich political class and poor ordinary Kenyans, are promises to improve our public schools and public health facilities. Sadly, poor Kenyans rise up against their next-door Kenyans due to these coalitions. The society throws soberness to the wind and gets carried away by this political whirlwind.

Legislators extended the house sitting hours in order to immorally increase their salaries and allowances. Days later at public rallies, they vehemently denied being part of this evil-axis hell-bent on plundering the public coffers. The key concerns of Kenyans such as jobs, high cost of living, insecurity and provision of better healthcare feature prominently on the manifestos of our parties, but nobody ever talks about them once in power. This explains why these issues will forever hold us back, whether we have the ambitious Vision 2030 or not!

Politicians count their votes on the basis of their ethnic colossus that we have made so morally correct that vilifying them as negative ethnicity is politically unpalatable. Politics being the cruel game of numbers that it is, Kenyan politics know this all too well and all promises will be made, just to woo the numbers. Never mind that most of these pledges and manifestos started gathering dust in the shelves after March 4!  These will be rewritten in 2017 and subsequent elections.

This is the sad and vicious cycle of politics without principle that as Mahatma Gandhi said, are one of the seven deadly sins. In Kenya, we have and still pay dearly for this.

.

The Kenyan betrayal

The country has successfully managed to dodge the post-election bullet of 07-08. We went into the polls as a nation with a point to prove that indeed democracy is possible without raising pangas and machetes on the heads of those who supported our political rivals. After all, just as outgoing president, Mwai Kibaki once sarcastically noted, elections last a day, after which everyone goes back to his usual life. This is not a life-time affair!

We have recovered from the election mood of the hotly contested 2013 polls and Kenyans are going back to their usual lives, those of daily challenges and hardships. Post-election hangovers are slowly but surely being drowned in the sea of hardships and challenges that best describe the life of an ordinary Kenyan.

However, just like in any other contest, disgruntled and dissatisfied losers have moved their petitions to court, with the big one being that of CORD’s Raila Odinga, who has challenged President-elect, Uhuru Kenyatta’s win. The battle swords have once again being unleashed, luckily this is along the corridors of a now reformed judiciary. The eagerly awaited ruling by the Supreme Court on this tussle, promises to be a big one, one that is expected to shake the political setting of this country. But as the law dictates, we cannot comment on issues presently before the court, and Chief justice Willy Mutunga has rightfully too warned against that. Our learned friends will tell you that this is contempt of court. There is a betrayal of its kind in the country.

Kenyans who earn a living from Industrial area are back to what they do best; trekking  from the Kiberas and Korogochos of Nairobi in the biting cold, work under the scorching sun and go back home under the cover of darkness. They wake up early and go to bed late, only too unsure of how tomorrow will be in these informal settlements. This is the daily process that earns them some paltry coins. These are the very Kenyans who religiously took part in the electoral process, after seeing politicians troop to their homes and lives to woo them with all manner of promises and pledges, that you are sure will never see the light of implementation and realization. Welcome to the Kenyan comedy show that is politics.

Politicians throw their manifestos and promises to the shelves after their election. Never mind that these are what ushered them into the voters’ hearts, and on the other end, an electorate that never bothers to see that these manifestos are implemented keeps mum. These shows go on for five years when the politicians and Kenyans come together once again; it is election time. This is when politicians bombard our ears, telling us that tuko pamoja and all manner of cheap political storylines. Sadly, Kenyans never ask what this means. Immediately, the polls are gone, the politician disappears to the comfort of his Karen and Runda homes, never mind that the people he represents are fighting daily to guarantee their tomorrow, far away in Turkana and other marginalized areas of the Kenya.

Out of this bitter frustration, these Kenyans seek solace in the church. The institution that since the days of Jesus on this planet, comforted the afflicted, dressed the naked, instilled hope to the hopeless and answered the cry and anguish of the society’s down-trodden. This is so reflected in the miracles that the son of Man performed, from turning water into wine and giving food to the hungry to raising Lazarus and others from the dead.

However, this is where Kenyans are economically and spiritually plundered by some religious charlatans, who promise the heavenly goodies, at a fee! Pastors in these churches apparently perform miracles at a rate that would make Jesus Christ turn green with envy! HIV/ Aids is now curable, courtesy of these men and women. Domestic issues become a thing of the past, poverty vanishes in a minute and hardships that wreck Kenyans can now disappear in a minute, at the click of a prayer! At this rate, Kenyans do not have to work and study so hard in life; prayers are an equally able avenue to good life! What a fallacy! The faithful are buying services that the Son of God offered freely to those who cried out to him.

A Nigerian, pastor Chris Ojigbani  came to Kenya, to pray for Kenyan women and help them get their much elusive better-halves! As expected, women thronged the Nyayo National Stadium and the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) on the two instances that this husband-offering Nigerian landed in town. Religiou mesmerization  at its best.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Gospel of prosperity is the in-thing today that has captured the rich imagination of many a Kenyan. Kupanda mbegu is all what a troubled Kenyan needs to do. This trend has turned the word of God into a career that has changed the lives of the congregation and the men of cloth in two contrasting ways. The faithful lose money, families break and Kenyans are slumping into the poverty abyss at a very fast rate. These churches drain these Kenyans dry and yet they have never been known to take part in any charitable endeavors or the so-called works of mercy, like attending to the poor, the sick, widows and orphans. They never take part in any compassionate activities to comfort the aggrieved and afflicted in the society, never mind that is a key responsibility of the church, that Jesus, through his works, taught us to do.

 On the other side, the preachers transform their lives into of flashy clothing, top-of the range cars and state- of- the art houses that even the rich envy. This is the irony of most of these churches that afflict more pain and anguish on Kenyans. They pile misery on the very people they are supposed to comfort and a give a shoulder to lean on when times are thick and uncertain.

The country has eaten her people. Most of our politicians have turned the public offices into milking cows and the fastest way to becoming stinking rich. Corruption, impunity and all sorts of shameful scenes best describe these offices. The church that was supposed to be the shepherd of God’s sheep is not sparing them either. Churches spring up from all corners of the republic, as Kenyans hold the Bible and begin the voyage to flashy lives. Those financially able have moved it to the next level where the holy word of God is preached on our television sets. These are men and women who only accept money as the only form of thanksgiving to God. Any other offering can rightly-fully be described as a non-grata in the church!

At the backdrop of all this fallacious living that the Kenyan society has adopted, our sportsmen and women continually fly our flag high on the globe. Shujaa lost in the semis of the main cup in the Hong Kong 7’s, our cross-country team to Bydgozyk, Poland emerged victorious and Harambee Stars snatched a hugely-deserved one-all draw against the much fancied Super Eagles at their own backyard, in Calabar. Let us not forget the deplorable conditions that they met on landing in Lagos, poor food and lack of a training pitch to prepare for the match.  They defied odds and nearly became the first team to win in Nigeria in over three decades.

These are the men and women that we owe so much to, as a country. Sadly, we hardly appreciate what they have tirelessly done to the country. Maybe they are victims of society that has betrayed its people and is now eating them!