Why Uhuru may have offered Achesa chance to star in blockbuster

In appointing Rashid Mohammed Achesa as Sports Cabinet Secretary, President Uhuru Kenyatta may have potentially launched the script for a Hollywood blockbuster.

Most people haven't received Achesa's appointment positively, with the Jubilee-heavy National Assembly just about the only cheerleaders.

Well, if academic qualifications were the prerequisite for the appointment of CSs ¬¬¬– which ought to be the case anyway – then the man from Nabongo Mumia's clan wouldn't have stood a chance.

But President Kenyatta did the unthinkable and shocked everyone, including Achesa himself, by making an appointment that stunned many a political analyst.

Now, it's up to Achesa to trigger Spike Lee and other Hollywood directors into sending crews to Nairobi for the production of the biggest Kenyan movie since Justin Chadwick’s First Grader.

Achesa could be the best thing that happened to Kenyan sport.

The man from Shibale should latch onto the unwelcoming mood by hitting critics for a towering six and turning around the much-maligned ministry.

The man from Shibale is lucky as he walks into a ministry that now has a sober Principal Secretary in Kirimi Kaberia, the former BBC journalist who served at Kenya's missions in, inter alia, Brasilia and Madrid.

An accomplished diplomat, Kaberia was Real Madrid "galactico" Roberto Carlos' tenant on his tour of duty in Madrid and, therefore, appreciates the power of sport.

In Spike Lee's movie on Achesa's magic wand, Kaberia will perfectly fit the "co-starring" role.

The supporting cast will include Harun Komen, director of administration in the ministry.

Since his arrival at Kencom House, Komen has been bitten by the sports bug and lives, breathes sport.

Most certainly, Achesa will face the gargantuan task of warding off apathy from some PhD and Masters degree holders in the ministry who will scornfully look down upon the Shibale Primary School alumnus and only wear the plastic smile during photo ops to mask their disdain and appear "politically correct."

In my dream Hollywood blockbuster, these characters will be key to the script, their eventual embarrassment after Achesa's success building up the crescendo in the general exhibition movie that will be safely aired outside PhD holder and "moral policemen" Ezekiel Mutua's "watershed" period to motivate school dropouts.

By the way, I will also be in the movie, not as an "extra", but appearing as myself, among the battery of journalists chronicling Achesa's meteoric rise and documenting his roller coaster ride at Kencom House.

Clearly, Achesa will only succeed through heavy consultation, the management style that endeared Maina Kamanda, previous holder of the sports docket, to the sports fraternity and sorority.

He has his work cut out and must carefully peruse through the report of the 2016 Rio Olympics Probe Committee which unearthed serious management inadequacies in Kenyan sport and offered recommendation to get us out of the woods.

Having been part of that committee, my heart bleeds when I reflect on just how inconsiderate some of Kenya’s sports managers are, some officials in the ministry Achesa now heads included.

Sadly, none of the recommendations in the report were effected, despite President Kenyatta assuring, in his 2017 New Year’s address to the nation, that those culpable would be brought to book.

This Achesa must “revisit.”

The net effect of the absence of prosecutorial activity is that we are likely to see the same inadequacies played back as we head into Gold Coast, Australia, for the Commonwealth Games in just over a month’s time.

Already, there’s disquiet in some federations over selection criteria for these games and we are bound to see a contingent of joyriders plundering tax payers’ resources to sunbathe on the Gold Coast beaches.

These are the plots Achesa must nip in the bud as he works his way into Spike Lee’s blockbuster.

He must hit the ground running, roll up his sleeves and get ready to make his hands dirty in cleaning up Kenya’s tainted sports.

I wish the man from Shibale well, and for selfish reasons at that, because I want to appear in the Hollywood movie.

President Kenyatta has thrown down the gauntlet and the former boxer should take up the challenge and make a mark, just like his ancestor Nabongo Mumia did.

The new CS should grab the potentially Oscar Award-winning position to also prove to the world that while they are extremely important, academic credentials may not necessarily be the only means to make a change.

Like Kimani Maruge (played by Oliver Litondo) in First Grader, Achesa can trigger some activity in the box office and punch his way into fame.

The ball is in your court, Bwana Waziri. Go on, make a name!

Lights, camera, action!