Kenyan Premier League: No holiday for football stakeholders

A car that was bunt by Gor Mahia fans in Machakos after Gor lost 3-2 during their KPL match against Sofapaka at Machakos Stadium on Sunday 26/10/14.PHOTO:BONIFACE OKENDO

The chaos that has rocked the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) this season should be a call to football stakeholders not to go for December holiday come the end of the league on November 8. Over the years, Football Kenya Federation and KPL have packed their bags immediately the season ends, despite a full in-tray, only to return at the beginning of each new season.
The result is there for everyone to see. Botched Sony Sugar v AFC Leopards match yet there was a ruling the previous year about the unsuitability of Awendo Stadium to host high risk KPL matches.
Heightened acts of hooliganism involving AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia fans have cast a shadow on the fledgling league largely because the State has turned its back on the industry. Comments by Cabinet Secretary in charge of sports, Hassan Wario, still send a chilling feeling when he said it was the mandate of football people to police stadia. Perhaps, God forbid, it will take a catastrophe inside a stadium, to jolt Wario into revising his thoughts on security during football matches. After the chaos in Machakos on Sunday, it will be heinous for football stakeholders to close shop at the end of the season without urgently charting the way to curb the runaway hooliganism.