WILL THE KENYAN FOOTBALL SMILES COME BACK IN 2014?

The last time Kenyan football clubs tasted continental glory was back in 1987. The Peter Dawo led- Gor Mahia, popularly K’Ogalo ( House of K’Ogalo) won the then Mandela Cup Winners Cup, after defeating continental giants, Esperance Sportive De Tunis of Tunisia at a packed Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani ( currently Safaricom Stadium Kasarani). Since then, apart from Kenya Breweries final loss to Daring Club Motema Pembe of The Democratic Republic of Congo, in the 1994 Cup Winners Cup, the glory days have slowly but surely been turned into constant disappointments and football heartbreaks.

Kenyan clubs have since turned into the continent’s whipping boys! Year-in year-out, our clubs bow out in the early rounds. Even the locally dreaded Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards have been boxed into the losing corner as clubs from across the continent teach them tough and bitter footballing lessons!

However, as the 2014 Continental season kicks off, our representatives in the continental assignments have everything to play for. Gor Mahia will fly the nation’s colors in the CAF Champions League and face US Bitam of Gabon in the first round. The first leg will be in Nairobi on Saturday 8 February 2014, with the return leg to be played in a fortnight in Libreville. The Presidents Cup Champions, AFC Leopards will clash with Ethiopia’s Defence Fc on Sunday, 9 February at the Nyayo National Stadium.

Both Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards enjoy the most following in the country, a near- fanatical fan-base. The two community-based clubs have always counted on the 12^th man to win their matches locally and this week-end, will be no different. The fact that the two clubs have enjoyed unrivalled rise and brightening of their football fortunes in the local action in recent years, will also come into play. On one hand, the participation of Ingw’e in the continental scene is indeed a timely reward for their fans that have been thirsty to see their blue and white submarine toast glory, besides a return back to the continental action. Come Sunday, and Isukuti beats should add the much-needed home support to defeat Defence Fc and make the return leg in Addis Ababa a mere formality.

On the other hand, the K’Ogalo faithful have all reasons to believe that their tam can match up to the continent’s best, and the best way to prove this is on Saturday, when the Bobby Williamson-led team comes up against US Bitam, in the continent’s most prestigious club tourney. Gor Mahia has also been the most consistent team in the local league, twice finishing as runners-up to both Ulinzi Stars and Tusker FC, before finally landing the champions tag in 2013. The belief in the team must be high due to these stellar performances in the local action.

Then, there is the monetary motivations and consequent psychological boost that players and the technical units at both clubs have enjoyed since Mumias Sugar Company and Tuzo, owned by Spin Knit Dairies handed hefty sponsorships packages to AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia respectively. It is no secret that players at these two clubs are among the best paid local footballers. Thus, with the salaries and allowance worries a thing of the past, the two clubs should put up on their best shows over the week-end and give their faithful fans, followers and supporters something to smile about.

www.futaa.com, https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/category/14/-sports‎ 

Continental action makes an early comeback to Nairobi this week-end, and both Ingw’e and K’Ogalo should make us proud. Harambee Stars gave the long-suffering football fans a perfect end to 2013 by winning the 2013 GOTV CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup. The onus is now on AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia to give us the perfect start to 2014!

THE CONTINENT WITH THE WEIRD DEATH FASCINATION!

As a continent, we might have a love story with death! Our continent has problems, unless I am the one with the problems. The cry of war seems to stir up some evil fascination amongst the continent’s people and her leaders! When the embers of war go out and fizzle in the Ivory Coast, Central African Republic is set ablaze. The fire spreads to other nations. In the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, war is a norm. The sound of gun-fire and missiles is the order of the day. This love for war has fast spread to Africa’s newest independent state, South Sudan. 

South Sudan has not known peace since the turn of the New Year.  The two main antagonists, former vice-president Riek Machar and the president, Salva Kiir have locked up in fierce power struggle.  One has accused the other of usurping the law and leading as he wants while the other has fired back by claiming that his challenger wants to taste power through undemocratic means! The two no longer are leaders of the oil-rich state, but are the honchos of the Dinka and the Nuer enclaves! What started off as an attempted coup d’etat by Machar-led forces has since degenerated into ethnic cleansing, pitting mainly the bigger Nuer and Dinka tribes. Sudanese have died in numbers and no one knows when the deaths will stop because the peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have not offered us much hope.

Our very own Kenya tasted the bitterness of war and if what we saw and lived in from late December 2007 to February 2008, is what most of our brothers and sisters in these African countries go through, day and night, for years, then indeed we must thank our gods for saving us! Remember the infamous 1994 Rwandan genocide, where at least 800, 000 perished, mostly Tutsis as the ethnic cleansing pitted the majority Hutus against the minority Tutsis? Our continent and especially her leaders never learn.civil wars, coup d'etats and armed clashes define the race for power and natural resources. Millions of deaths are the results of these. yet we never learn!

Sadly, the civil wars and unrest that persist across the richest continent in natural resources are the curse of the very resources and power. From the oil-oozing Niger Delta in Nigeria, through the gold mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to the oil wells in South Sudan, the greed for the resources has simply out-gunned the power of reason. For political power and control of the exploitation of our mineral resources, blood and death is never too far away here. Since the days of the Blood Diamonds in Sierra Leone that gave rise to the merciless child-soldiers of the late Foday Sanko  rag-tag military to the Late Jonas Savimbi-led UNITA rebels in Angola, the love for political power and minerals have indeed been Africa’s curse! Innocent African civilians, military men and women and rag-tag militia have died in their millions and others displaced, and painfully so.   

Call it the evil fascination with death! No matter how many die, we still carry on as though nothing happened. Sadly, our leaders must be brought to the table by the international community to help them solve matters at home!

This is Africa where blood smells sweet and death is a norm! Never mind that there are nations of the world where even the death of a single civilian draws an outcry from the public. To them, life is precious. In Africa this is never the case and neither will it be unless the continent is born anew!

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD AT 50 YEARS!

The nation is still basking in the eerie of turning 50 years! Yes, half a century since we took charge of our destiny and determination, away from the yoke of colonization. At a packed Safaricom Stadium Kasarani (formerly Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani), H. E President Uhuru Kenyatta led the nation in marking this auspicious event. Our first birthday since, the late Munyao Kisoi lowered the Union Jack and raised the Kenyan flag, atop Mt Kenya on December 12^th 1963!

Pomp and color best described the day! We let go of our daily troubles as a country and put on brave smiles that braved even the chilly weather around the country! Kenya had finally turned 50 in the year of Jubilee, under the Jubilee government! The day when Kenyans forgot tribalism and ethnicity and threw them into the gutter, their rightful home! Kenya shone brightly and stood tall, as the entire world joined us in the celebrations and world leaders trouped to Nairobi.

Indeed, as a nation we have come far, education, infrastructure, technology, democracy and economic well-being, among other spheres of life, Kenya has indeed grown. A country of multi-party democracy, access to elementary education and higher learning institutions has reached great heights, we have the Thika ultra-modern highway and our road infrastructure is by far the region’s best. We have adopted the democracy of accommodating divergent political views and opinions and our politics, even though greatly pronounced along tribal and ethnic overtones, have never led us to a civil war, unlike what most of the African countries are used to. We have grown into being the region’s economic hub and yes across the globe, Kenya has earned her respect.

However, as a country, celebrating 50 years, we have had the negatives that have hindered our efforts to make Kenya the country that our founding fathers and independence champions dream of. Poverty, ignorance and communicable diseases ail the country, half a century since her birth. Add corruption, negative ethnicity and tribalism, nepotism, plundering of the nation’s resources, divisive politics and the disgusting culture of impunity and you get the perfect reasons why most Kenyans at large, do not have much to show for and celebrate, 50 years down the line. These have been the Achilles heel that has held our country hostage.

It is at best ironical that as we mark 50 years of self-rule and determination, the very problems that we experienced at independence, are what we are still fighting. The jiggers that torment our brothers and sisters in parts of Central Kenya and other parts of the country are a shame. Kenyans have died of hunger in recent years, our marginalized Kenyans in the Northern Frontier still shed blood over water and pasture for their livestock, cattle rustling is not going away anytime soon, the girl child in the marginalized parts of Kenya is still faced with the chilling fangs of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), forced marriages at tender age and some outdated traditions still deny her access to education.  Poverty is biting even harder in the slums that have mushroomed in our cities, the cost of living has skyrocketed and basic commodities are slowly but surely becoming a strain for Kenyans who are falling deeper and deeper into poverty, with every dawn of the sun.

At 50, Kenyans have become disillusioned about this beautiful country. Pregnant with expectations as the sun rises, yet as night falls disillusion sets in. The daily hardships and challenges have almost chocked the spirit that lives in the hearts of Kenyans. From bad and divisive politics to unnecessary leadership wrangles in our county assemblies and power fights, Kenyans have just had to take in too much. Most of the leaderships have clearly failed and the politics of recycling are the order of the day. Those who failed to deliver while in office, camouflage and come with party clamor, and due to politics of euphoria, they get back to office.

As we jubilate and eerie at reaching the 50 years milestone, let us be true and patriotic to our nation. We have reasons to celebrate but again, we have daunting challenges and hurdles that besiege us. True love for our country demands that we must sit and objectively look at these two sides of our nation; the side of successes and the other one of failures. We must uphold the rights that we did to achieve these successes and even do more. On the other hand, it will be suicidal to ignore the failures and why they happened. This is the way to realize Vision 2030 and also make sure that in the next 50 years, we all have reasons to smile and be proud of our beloved nation!

We must appreciate our Harambee Stars for gifting us the perfect present as we marked our birthday. Their victory over Sudan, not only confirmed them as the region’s best, but also gave us all reasons that the African Nation’s Cup in 2015 to be held in Morocco, is a dream that is closer than ever. Apart from fan’s apathy especially in Nairobi, the team under Belgium tactician, Adel Amrouche, displayed some attacking football that we had never witnessed in recent years!

Happy Birthday Kenya!

ADIOS TATA!

BYE MANDELA! Screamed the Saturday Standard of December 7, 2013. Kenya through her media and leaders had paid tribute to the legendary statesman from South Africa. The Daily Mail captured it all in its headline, DEATH OF A COLOSSUS. The Sun, eulogized President of the World. The MDIBA, a television channel went on air since his death, solely eulogizing and paying tribute to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the father of the nation!

Politics and the sporting world once again came together, just as Tata had joined them in his life. The entire world and all her leaders paid tribute to the respectable man who lived up to every bit as a statesman. The sporting fraternity too paid to the man who was instrumental in ensuring that South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup. Born in August 18 1918, he passed away on December 5 2013, at the glittering age of 95 years! He experienced the chills and horrors of the apartheid regime, fought them and united South Africans, away from the racial differences. The revered man, fondly referred to as Tata Madiba, the man is no more.

He was a unifier from the moment he walked out of prison; these are the words of fiery South African cleric, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. And yes indeed, Mandela exemplified this in his struggle to fight for the independence of South Africa, fight against apartheid and the fact that he united the country. He broke the racial lines that were the trademark of the apartheid regime! After 27 years in a prison on Robben Island, as a result of the ideals of freedom, equality and justice that he believed in  alongside other leaders like Walter Sisulu and Steve Biko among others, Mandela served only one term as president; from 1994-1999, then handed over power to Thabo Mbeki. Now this was humility and love for the nation. He chose not to cling on power as most African leaders do. Mandela did the complete opposite of the African trend whereby presidents hold on to power for as long as they breathe, not bearing in mind their ailing health and age!

Mandela was the enduring figure in the war against apartheid in his home country. A battle that he won and on his ascension to power, chose magnanimity over revenge, he forgave his oppressors.  Through him, the Rainbow nation was united and the apartheid was defeated. He dismantled the legacy of apartheid by tackling racism, poverty and inequality and fostered reconciliation of the black and white races. This set South Africa on the right footing to development and better lives for her citizens.The African son who believed in the cause of a better Africa for all.

From the Rivonia treason trial in 1964, where Mandela delivered a moving speech from the dock about ‘this struggle by the African people for a free and equal society, where all people had equal opportunities and lived in harmony. Later, these words captured from another speech … an ideal that if need be, my Lord, I am prepared to die for……,  showed the resolve by this man in his quest for a better South Africa. He was defiant and prescient, even as the shadow of death loomed so near every second of his bitter and treacherous fight for his ideals and cause.

Mandela chose to live his better part of life in trying to make his country better for all, and break the inequities that were so pronounced along the racial lines. Out of his 95 years alive, Mandela lived only 22 as a free man! And yes indeed, Mandela won this battle, however in a journey that was gruelling and even earned him the tag of the most famous political prisoner of his time.

In the sporting sphere, a year into his presidency, the South African rugby national team, The Springboks, won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, at their first attempt as a unitary state. A red-hot Jonah Lomu-inspired All Blacks lost to a Mandela- inspired Springboks.  President Mandela was on hand to the Ellis Webb trophy to the then South African captain Francois Pienaar. Three years later, the national soccer team, Bafana Bafana (The Boys) won the African Nations Cup, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. …Sport laughs in the face of all discrimination’, Mandela once said. Truly incredible performances from a nation that was barely ten years old as a democracy! South Africa was fast blossoming in politics, social and sporting spheres!

However, as we join the entire world in mourning the death and celebrating the life of this legendary statesman, we need to revisit the leadership lessons that he taught us.

After a 27-years incarceration on Robben Island, Tata came into power in 1994. But he did one incredible and unique act of leadership. He chose to forgive the very tormentors who had made his life hard alongside other freedom fighters like Walter Sisulu and Steve Biko, among others. He chose magnanimity and humility in his five years of presidency and broke the bitter racial lines that South Africans had known. This is what African leaders should look into and break away from the nepotism, ethnicity and politics of division that they hold onto while in power. This would be a giant step in curing the African leadership of these ills of division that they sow with unyielding determination.

He chose to hand over power after just one term in office! This is perhaps the greatest legacy of the Mandela leadership that most African presidents have dismally fallen. Relinquishing the trappings of power, after just a term in office, despite the bitterly painful struggle and fight against apartheid and colonisation, is simply incredible!  It is only in Africa where we have presidents for life! They hold onto power for decades and abhor any sign of change. Political intimidation and constitutional violations are two key weapons that they use to cling on power. This is done at the expense of a nation’s peace and the social-political and economic well-being of the citizens. This high office is mainly used for personal and selfish gains. As a result, African is lagging this behind in development due to these poor leadership patterns; a continent that is the richest in natural resources. Mandela set the ball rolling in the right direction but successive leaderships across the continent have lost the plot.

As a continent, very rarely have African presidencies adhered to these great virtues of responsible leadership and service to humanity that Tata Madiba taught us, all through his struggle and then in his one-term presidency. The greatest respect to Tata would be for the African leaders to follow in his footsteps of leadership. That way, Africa would get back on that track that Mandela, Mwalimu Nyerere, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah, among others envisaged as they waged the battle to attain self-determination and a better continent for all her sons.

You will always achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution’’ Nelson Mandela once said on revenge.

Rest in Peace Tata Madiba.

GOR MAHIA’S GLORIOUS SEASON!

It was billed as the title decider! The most important game for the front-runners for the 2013 Kenya Premier League, Gor Mahia and Sofapaka. The match that was to decide if the green army won their first title in 18 years, or whether Sofapaka, popular as Batoto Ba Mungu clinched their second title since their promotion to the Kenyan top-flight soccer in 2009.

After a grueling 90 minutes at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, Ugandan hitman, Dan Sserunkuma earned Gor Mahia a 1-0 victory over a wasteful Sofapaka side. This is the goal that effectively ended K’Ogallo’s 18-year old wait for the league crown. It also ensured that the green army faithful earned the bragging rights over ther arch-rivals, AFC Leopards.

Last season’s painful memories of a last-day title loss to Tusker Fc, had been the nightmare to every green army follower. The agonizing day at Nairobi’s City Stadium, when Thika United denied Gor Mahia the premiership crown that every fan believed that it was theirs to lose. However, as many K’Ogallo fans decried, the football gods had conspired with fate to deny Gor Mahia football’s bragging rights.

With three matches to go, Gor Mahia has all but sealed the 2013 premiership title, leaving their mashemejis, AFC Leopards and Sofapaka to fight for the second spot. Even sweeter is that, Gor Mahia will fly Kenya’s flag in next year’s CAF Champions League; the sweet taste of Africa’s premier club competition! The ever optimistic K’Ogallo fans are crossing their fingers and hoping that this will be another 1989 when, a Peter Daw’o led-Gor Mahia, won the Mandela Cup and etched their name into the continent’s history books; the first club from East and Central Africa to win a continental title. However, this is all history and Gor Mahia has a chance to lock horn with the likes of Al Ahly, Orlando Pirates and Esperance, among other giants of African club football.

As a football loving nation, we hope that the current Gor Mahia side, that has been the most consistent for the past three seasons will give us something to smile about, when club continental soccer kicks off next year. 

THE HARROWING HAGUE HALLOWEEN!

The harsh reality has slowly but surely sank into the hearts of the entire nation. Our sitting president, Honorable Uhuru Kenyatta is awaiting the commencement of his trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in November. But is this the cup of tea that the nation envisaged in late 2008,when the then ICC Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo declared that he was to use the Kenyan case as an example that crimes against humanity have no place in the society? My crystal ball tells me, NO!

After the infamous Waki envelope that was handed to former United Nations Chief, Koffi Annan, notable efforts were made to establish a local tribunal to try the suspects and ensure that the cases did not end up in the corridors of The Hague, as is the case now. The Late Makueni senator and former Constitutional Affairs minister, Mutula Kilonzo, former Gichugu legislator, Martha Karua and Honorable Gitobu Imanyara, all saw their efforts viciously quashed at the floor of the 10^th House. At that time, the deliberate decibels of ‘Let us not be vague, let us go to The Hague’ reverberated across the entire country.  Most of the politicians argued that The Hague process was the only avenue through which victims of the 07-08 blood-letting would get justice.

Almost five years down the line, the harsh reality of The Hague process has set in and the same politicians, who had the golden chance to save the country and the suspects from trial at The Hague, are screaming loudest, with all manner of deliberate untruths and outright lies. The ICC has suddenly turned into a political axis, heel-bend on settling political scores, depending on which side of the political arena one has taken. To others, it is the deliberate and devil plan of the western powers to rule over Kenya. To others, it is our sovereignty that we are losing to the west! All manner of arguments rent the air. Rightfully so, it is country with a constitution that greatly safeguards the freedom of expression and opinion opinions, thus all opinions are correct and must be accommodated.

However, when we all soberly sit and look back, we must accept that the 10^th parliament and politicians failed to set up a local tribunal and hence invited The ICC into the country. So our sovereignty is not on trial. Had a local tribunal been set up, then our duly elected president and his deputy, alongside journalist, Joshua arap Sang’ would not be at the Hague. As a country, we must accept this failure and bemoan the fact that the parliament unanimously voted to take H.E Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy Honorable William Ruto and Joshua arap Sang’ to The Hague. Our politicians failed, the parliament failed and the entire nation failed. Our politicians should stop pretending to mourn alongside the president and his deputy and instead swallow the bitter pill; that they failed in setting up a local tribunal that could have averted The Hague reality check.

The greatest regret is that our duly elected president and his deputy are facing trial in a foreign land. This is scenario that we could have avoided had we not done unnecessary politics. The Hague was sure to happen and our politicians should have known better.

It is not Uhuru Kenyatta on trial, but the duly elected head of Kenya is at The Hague.  It is not William Ruto on trial at The Hague, but it is the duly elected deputy president of the Republic of Kenya. This is the harsh reality that we must bemoan and accept as a nation.  Remember that, they have great constitutional responsibilities to dispense as the two most powerful men on the land.

COLOR-CAMOUFLAGED STARS!

Any keen Kenyan who religiously follows our heart-breaking Harambee Stars must have noticed that the team lacks consistency in their colors.  We must accept it that indeed any fan of HarambeeStars must always break his head in the quest to get the latest colors of our Harambee Stars. The Samba Boys of Brazil, Argentina and even closer home, Nigeria’s Super Eagles and Indomitable Lions of Cameroun, have traditionally maintained their colors and designs. Harambee Stars change theirs almost at every game! 

For example, in the just-ended dismal campaign for Brazil 2014, Stars donned at least four different colors and designs, sadly, somewhere awfully copied designs of European clubs. This begs the question, is it that kit designers are scrambling to kit our national soccer team or is it that someone somewhere is making a kill out of this whole issue? My crystal ball tells me that the latter is what happens, for the two simple reasons. One, Harambee Stars are one of the biggest disappointments that we have had to endure for as long as we can remember. Secondly, the poorly designed kits, that are outright copycats of some European clubs, cannot be the work of any serious kit designer, like Adidas, Nike, Puma or even Kelme, whose logo dominantly feature on the Harambee Stars kits.

We all remember the baggy jerseys that Harambee Stars donned in the return match against Nigeria, in the qualification for Brazil 2014. Needless to say, theses jerseys were exact replicas for the 2013-14 season that Manchester United is donning. The only difference was the Kelme and Football Kenya Football, FKF logos and of course the big Kenyan name that was inscribed on them.

In every continental and regional engagement, our Harambee Stars somehow bolt out of the dressing rooms in new kits! Just as the un-rivaled turnovers in coaches, the kits are equally different. The inconsistency with which Harambee Stars change their kits simply baffles everyone. A phenomenon that must be turning all big teams turn green with envy, only if it was that great!