OJUANG: Time to roughshod on Harambee Stars' back

Deputy President William Ruto (third right) poses for photos with Harambee Stars captain Victor Wanyama and coach Sebastien Migne (second right) and other players at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on October 12, 2018. Ruto visited the national football team in camp ahead of their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia on October 14 at the same venue. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

What you need to know:

  • The Deputy President visited the lads at training and promised the team fifty million shilling if they manage to qualify.
  • Politicians with their wet noses for publicity promised busloads of fans to fill up the stadium and as I do this piece, hundreds of hired buses are dropping thousands of fans to the venue.
  • They are trying to outdo each other in seeking grandeur.

I file this piece at Kasarani stadium with fear that the crowds of Kenyans willing to watch the match shall grow to an uncontrollable throng.

Just a few weeks ago, few people were rating Stars as good to go places. The coach by the time the team left for Ethiopia, had not been paid his dues. Football Kenya Federation justified the matter on TV and told us bluntly that the federation had no cash to pay!

Fingers were pointed to the sports ministry and that befuddled ministry kept mum about the issue. They were of course too incompetent even to respond.

Politicians were minding their own business-which we do not know- all was dead calm. All over sudden, the Stars travelled to Ethiopia and managed to salvage their chances of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Cameroon next year.

The win on Sunday leaves them on the brink of returning to the continental stage. All hell broke loose; politicians turned their heads on the direction of the team and started promising heaven, whilst of course seeking publicity by rubbing themselves with the success of the national team.

The Deputy President visited the lads at training and promised the team fifty million shilling if they manage to qualify.

Politicians with their wet noses for publicity promised busloads of fans to fill up the stadium and as I do this piece, hundreds of hired buses are dropping thousands of fans to the venue.

They are trying to outdo each other in seeking grandeur. The fans were promised free entry to the stadium without considering that there shall be more fans than the recommended capacity.

The stadium is not allowed to take in more than two thirds its total capacity of sixty thousand, but how shall we know when the quota is reached?

Security was promised and well, we must admit they are there but the throng shall overwhelm them.

We have been through this road before. We promise free entry to the stadium and then we shall have to trim the numbers at the gates. Some years back, we made the same mistake, filled up Nyayo Stadium to the brim and then we were lucky enough not to be suspended by either Caf of Fifa.

We were not allowed to have any fans in our next match and we got an unforgettable thumping from Tunisia right here at home in an empty stadium!

It seems we never learned any lesson from that drubbing.

We never seem to learn!

We take this opportunity to warn our football administrators to avoid this situation in future. The politicians now dangling goodies on your noses shall take a back seat and let you roast in the ire of the public.

The federation has no money. The Ethiopian FA collected some six million shillings on gate collections, while this broke lot pretends to allow free entry! Let me cross my fingers and watch the Stars play.