Kenya’s team to this year’s Olympics in London is finally getting some oomph. For years, we have been accustomed to the spectacle of lean men and women emerging from the plane with medals dangling off their necks.
Between sips of fermented milk – mursik, amid ululations from relatives, the only sound-bite from the athletes was the fractured,
“I’m a golden medal,” which was true as all they did was win gold, then retreating for further training until the next international meet was announced, from where they would return with even more gold.
But in keeping with our tradition of meddling in what appears to be working, politics have infiltrated our tracks, and I’m not talking about PM Tinga’s appearance at Team Kenya this week.
Keep up with pace
The PM actually visited to motivate the athletes with his farasi mbili (two-horse race) principle. For those who may have forgotten, Tinga has been touring the country blabbering about the next General Election as a two-horse race – all else will be mules that cannot keep up with the pace.
Tinga, of course, considers himself to be one of the horses. Don’t ask me who told him so. The other horse will be the finest of all the political asses that Tinga dismisses are merely escorting the horses to the ballot.
Such is the confidence booster that Team Kenya would relish, and I suspect Tinga did exactly that this week. “Hii itakuwa mbio ya farasi mbili,” (this will be a two-horse race), Tinga would predictably have told the athletes, as he does with his political opponents. “Hiyo ingine yote itakuwa ni punda (Everything else will be asses).
The assembled athletes would have giggled, not quite sure why Tinga would be so contemptuous of their worthy competitors who have been scooping gold with ease.
Democratic pretentions
Tinga would elaborate in his subsequent statement. “You have what we call natural advantage. The world comes to train at Iten.
But most of you have lived there. What’s a few weeks of preparation compared to someone who has been preparing for life? You can leave the bed and go straight and run to an Olympics gold!”
Tinga being a politician with democratic pretentions, he would conclude by saying our athletes not to be overly concerned about the positions that they clinch. “I’m sure our athletes will have a clean 1-2-3 sweep.
You can sweep the last three, the middle three or top three positions, shauri yako! (It’s up to your).
That kind of message would have buoyed our athletes’ morale at this time of flagging performance. It would have been particularly welcomed by officials who have been locked in siasa (politics) proper. I’m talking about Athletics Kenya (AK) and the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (Nock).
Besides the two bickering just about everything, from which athletes should represent the country, to where they should train, some athletes could not be allowed in camp even after qualifying in various categories.
But the juicy part of the scandal is that, in keeping with tradition, it could have something with money, some peanuts, if you ask our more experienced politicians. Officials of AK and Nock are reported to have arrived in Bristol much earlier not to bolster team morale but to earn the generous per diems that were guaranteed – whether the team picked a gold haul at the Olympics, or went back empty-handed.
Thankfully, such scrutiny would not be possible with the convenient distraction that Tinga’s motivational speech proffers – allowing us to run with our mouths, instead of our feet.
