Omondi: We must learn to do things the right way

Harambee Stars players, the new Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup champions, are over the moon as they celebrate with their trophy at Nyayo Stadium Thursday. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO

What you need to know:

  • Against all odds, our football authorities had pulled off a small miracle by somehow ‘successfully’ hosting the two-week tournament with the added boon of an hitherto elusive trophy. But lo and behold!
  • That Nicholas Musonye, the abrasive Cecafa secretary-general, gave much of the activity preluding the tournament a wide berth, was an obvious giveaway that Cecafa and FKF were not operating on the same wavelength. But having got their way in this little turf war, FKF belatedly realised that they had bitten more than they could chew.

One of the biggest ironies of life is that failure often shows up disguised as success. Take, for instance, Harambee Stars’ triumph in the just-concluded Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup.

On face value, this was one glorious moment for the nation — not just because Harambee Stars had finally delivered a sixth regional crown to their long-suffering fans after many years of trying but because the trophy had been delivered as a special birthday gift for the country on the 50th anniversary of Independent.

Against all odds, our football authorities had pulled off a small miracle by somehow ‘successfully’ hosting the two-week tournament with the added boon of an hitherto elusive trophy. But lo and behold!

The sheen was only skin-deep, a smoke screen for a piling mound of stinking garbage in the practical sense of the word. The tip of the dung hill.

Having gone to great lengths to host this year’s edition of the tournament after we were ‘robbed’ of the hosting rights for the previous edition, Football Kenya Federation’s (FKF) top leadership resorted to underhand tactics to usurp the powers of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa).

That Nicholas Musonye, the abrasive Cecafa secretary-general, gave much of the activity preluding the tournament a wide berth, was an obvious giveaway that Cecafa and FKF were not operating on the same wavelength. But having got their way in this little turf war, FKF belatedly realised that they had bitten more than they could chew.

LOGISTICS NIGHTMARE

A few weeks to kick-off, the Local Organising Committee was grappling with a major logistics nightmare.

Nearly all match venues spread across the country were not ready for the tournament, the government kept dragging its feet in making a commitment to the course and new sponsors were nowhere in sight following the expiry of East African Breweries Limited’s (EABL) multi-million-shilling contract.

Suddenly, there was a mad rush by FKF, led by Sam Nyamweya, to overcome these self-imposed challenges.

By some God-send fortune, and the benevolence of a certain Dr Alfred Mutua, a new stadium was unveiled in Machakos, Nyayo National Stadium got a little bit of sprucing up while Nakuru’s Afraha Stadium and what used to be Mombasa Municipal Stadium barely made the cut.

And then, just in the nick of time, GOtv, UAP and Coca-Cola joined the bandwagon as the event’s co-sponsors to FKF’s great relief. The eargerly awaited ‘stipend’ from the government didn’t come through though.

When the tournament finally got under way, Kenya’s head coach Adel Amrouche inexplicably skipped the opening match against Ethiopia to protest the non-payment of his salary over a period spanning four months.

Many will remember Musonye’s famous quote back in 2009, when Kenya last hosted the tournament, that Kenyan fans don’t give a hoot about the beautiful game, that their primary concern being sipping the tipple while gossiping in their favourite watering holes.

Save for fans in Machakos, Nakuru and Mombasa, who rarely get an opportunity to watch Harambee Stars up close, it was more or less a familiar scenario of yawning match venues, especially so games in Nairobi not involving the home team.

The more optimistic of our lot blamed it on the weather. For some reason, though, good old Musonye decided to keep his peace this time round.

The man almost took a leave of absence during the tournament, letting ‘Uncle Sam’ to bask in the glory of doing all the running around in a fervent publicity hype.

Being Kenyan, and having dealt with his countrymen on more than enough occasions, perhaps Musonye had sufficient foresight and took great comfort in watching FKF people making a fool of themselves.

The organisation was just chaotic. And sadly, a section of the Kenyan media was in bed with the mandarins at FKF. With the exception of the Daily Nation, which pulled the lid off FKF’s mound of stinking ineptitude with a candid opinion piece on Wednesday, December 11, all that a cross-section of the local media did was turn a blind eye to the ‘negative’ stories.

The anti-climax of this poorly scripted show was the news of some visiting teams’ forceful confinement in their hotel rooms over unpaid bills. The tragedy is that all this was happening when Kenya was celebrating its Jubilee independence anniversary.

But our gallant Harambee Stars spared FKF the blushes by ensuring the trophy returned to Kenya.

When President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted the team at State House three days after the feat, Sports, Culture and Arts Cabinet Secretary Dr Hassan Wario said: “We have learnt important lessons on how not to do things.” Indeed, a very damning indictment, but perhaps an honest concession of our shortcomings.