Let's put act together to avoid African Games failure

Members of African Games athletics team sit at the reception of the Luke Hotel on August 13, 2019 after being locked out due to unpaid bills. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

What you need to know:

  • The African Games start next week in Rabat, Morocco, with the World Athletics Championships set for next month and October in Doha
  • If we are to deliver as sportsmen and women, we need support from all corners
  • What we lack as a nation is proper planning and that is why our late decisions always come back to haunt us

This is that time we would all love to sit back and focus on real issues ahead. We, therefore, need that peaceful environment to focus on the forthcoming assignments.

As we are all aware, the African Games start next week in Rabat, Morocco, with the World Athletics Championships set for next month and October in Doha.

The two events are key for the athletes because they lead up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games that’s why we should allow them compete in a serene environment. Which is why the back and forth that is being experienced in the sports circles at the moment as we prepare for the African Games is unnecessary.

If we are to deliver as sportsmen and women, we need support from all corners. What is happening is not good for results and we risk reaping little from our missions in Rabat and Doha.

We need not wash our dirty linen in public and the Ministry of Sport — whose mandate is to serve the sports fraternity —should seek alternative ways of handling sports disputes rather than attacking federations.

I don't quite remember Athletics Kenya being part of the African Games organisation and the anti-Athletics Kenya remarks made by the Sports Principal Secretary Kirimi Kaberia after the team was locked out of their city hotel on Tuesday are, therefore, unfortunate.

The PS heaped blame on AK, yet all AK did, like any other federations, was to present a team and wait for direction from the Kenya National Sports Council. AK didn’t decide where the team was going to reside.

What we lack as a nation is proper planning and that is why our late decisions always come back to haunt us. We have known about these African games for the last three years and all we needed was to do everything early.

However, we planned to fail and the results have started showing. We must now really must get our act together to avoid the ship sinking altogether.