Football gains down the drain as hooligans reign

Charles Ndegwa

If, as it is oft said, a picture is worth a thousand words, then yesterday’s Page 2 pictorial in The Standard titled ‘Hooligans’ was an essay on how to bring the beautiful game into disrepute.

With last year’s nail-biting finish to the Kenya Premier League still fresh in the public’s mind, this was the year when it was hoped that the league would build on past success and soar to even greater heights. It is not so long ago that matches were played to virtually empty stadiums because of fans’ disillusionment with the way football affairs were being managed.

Fear of violence

We are still not out of the woods quite yet, but there is light at the end of that tunnel. The fear of violence breaking out during or after a match also put off many people from attending live matches, and it is unforgivable that when the league has done so much to win back the trust of paying spectators, stone-wielding Neanderthals are threatening to reverse these hard-earned gains.

KPL must swiftly nip this behaviour in the bud by coming down on guilty clubs and thugs like a tonne of bricks.

Invasion of the public space snatchers

Several property owners along Rose Avenue off Ngong Road and Kindaruma Road have conspired to make pedestrians’ lives a nightmare, according to Ms Grace Mwangi.

"Along Rose Avenue, there is a property occupied by a Chinese organisation. The building’s owners have blocked the entire pedestrian path that runs parallel to their property by building a two-foot wide boundary that goes right to the road’s shoulder," says Grace.

Woe unto you should you be walking past this property when a bus comes hurtling down Rose Avenue — the only option will be to dive for safety into a thorny bougainvillea hedge nearby. And Grace should know, saying she has been a victim on more than one occasion.

"There are also several developments coming up along Kindaruma Road meaning there is a lot of traffic from heavy machinery. The owners of these new developments have extended fences right up to the road’s edge, again leaving no room for pedestrians," she says.

City Council officials are not strangers to the area, and Grace would be grateful if they ensured property owners don’t encroach on public space.

Hoax calls from prison cells

After reading about Mr B Otieno’s experience at the hands of a hoax caller, Mr Tolbert Otieno shares a few useful insights.

"I once experienced the same thing with the caller promising to tell me who wanted me dead if I paid him. I ended up sending him Sh100 through M-Pesa to get his registration details before reporting the matter to the Nairobi Provincial CID headquarters," Tolbert narrates.

At the CID offices, he met a friendly officer who assisted him to ‘trace’ the number. The CID had already flagged the number because it had been previously used to threaten other callers. It also emerged that the caller was a prisoner at Kibos Prison in Kisumu who was running an extortion racket.

Accomplices

"I wish to ask the public to refrain from sending money to the callers through M-Pesa regardless of how small the amount is. At the end of the day, the Sh50 and Sh100 add up to a substantial amount, which will be easily withdrawn by the convict’s accomplices," Tolbert advises.

He would also like the authorities to work harder to eliminate these cartels that operate behind bars with impunity.

Staff get taste of tribal flavours

An employee of Parliament’s Serjeant-at-Arms Department is calling for investigation into the activities of two senior officers who have turned the department into a tribal enclave.

"For the past four years, some employees have benefited from learning trips to other countries’ parliaments to the exclusion of those without ‘the right connections’. The two officers openly tell these staffers that not even the Speaker or the Clerk can help them," says the employee.

"Why are the officers using public office to benefit their kin? It is time they were held to account," is a valid parting shot.

Nary a hint of tarmac on Lari’s potholed roads

Ms Rose Wangui, a resident of Lari, voiced her concerns about the state of the constituency’s roads on November 4 (Middle-range tactics baffle Lari road user).

Apart from the 40km stretch from Nairobi to Lari, which she described as having potholes for roads, she observed that the once tarmacked Githunguri-Kimende road was now a dirt path. Wangui was also baffled by the actions of the constituency’s road committee after it graded and tarmacked the ha-Kairu-Chiboni road ‘somewhere in the middle’.

And although she gave credit to the Kenya Tea Development Authority for maintaining rural roads, she was also demanding answers from MP David Njuguna and Roads Minister Franklin Bett on why that particular stretch of road was chosen.