Whither the goose that layeth the golden egg?

Omulo Okoth

I thought Finance Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, had not completed delivering the Budget Speech.

My eyes were glued to the television set throughout, expecting the scion of the pioneer First Family would dish out some special goodies to sports. Traditionally, sports news come last in most publications and electronic media newscasts. I thought sports would get a mention among Uhuru’s last items. How wrong I was!

The budget did not even mention the African Championships, which Kenya intends to host next year although Sports Minister Prof Hellen Sambili had raised people’s expectations that the event would be factored in the budget.

The Budget disclosed that the Department of Sports would receive Sh683m. How such a paltry amount, which can be donated by sports megastars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Tiger Woods, would help develop sports beats logic. Sports stadia around the country are in pathetic condition. During his visit to Eldoret in 2007 to reward world champions, President Kibaki pledged Sh100m for construction of synthetic tuff on Kipchoge Keino Stadium. This was neither mentioned in last year’s nor in this year’s budget.

Resembles a Cowshed

The stadium in Kapsabet, a place that has produced some of Kenya’s best athletes, resembles a cowshed. Mombasa and Kisumu Municipal Stadiums are in low altitude areas where sprinters can be developed to diversify Kenya’s medal chances in major games. Nakuru and Nyahururu, too, have stadia that are going to waste because of neglect, yet many top athletes would use them for training.

We recently ran a story stating that steeplechase, which guarantees Kenya gold medal at every Olympics, Commonwealth Games and World Championships, is threatened by lack of the barrier in other towns apart from Nairobi and Eldoret.

We Must Invest

There are no hurdles, pole vault, high jumps and landing mats all over the country, except in Nairobi. Until when will we wait for things to just fall in place? We must invest heavily in sports if we are to get results. We can’t rely on sports goods manufacturers’ and managers’ munificence to develop athletics.

Football, the eyesore of Kenyan sports despite its runaway popularity, does not know where its future stars will come from, thanks to a lack of youth development programmes.

Can’t the Government initiate some youth academy, which it funds, even if in conjunction with development partners? Can’t the Government allocate some money for the construction of a national cricket stadium, a rugby stadium it calls its own, with all this talent we have noticed recently?

What about the Kenya National Sports Council? Would it be fighting for a piece of this small cake with its affiliates travelling abroad or hosting tournaments locally?

Its equivalent in Australia, the Australian Sports Commission, will this year receive approximately $240m (Sh19b) as proposed in this year’s Budget. It lists the following items where it channels its funding: $85m (Sh6b) improving participation in physical activities, in particular organised sport at a "grassroots" (community) level. This includes increased participation for children, youth, Indigenous Australians, women and people with diabetes and the development of a national sport system;

$160m (Sh13b) towards the development of elite athletes at a national level, improving sports performance and continuing international sporting success through athlete development and targeted science and research.

Australians even allocated Funding of $45.6m (Sh4b) to be provided over three years to assist the Football Federation in submitting the best possible bid to host the 2018 or 2022 Fifa World Cup, and maximising the chances of either World Cup being staged in Australia.

We can’t compare ourselves with Australians, but let’s have the will to help develop sports. This is Kenya’s best-known legacy.

—The writer is The Standard’s Sports Editor

iomulo@eastandard.net

 

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