Row over IEBC bad for poll results

The story is told in newsrooms about how the rivalry between AFC and Gor Mahia football clubs was reflected in sports desks in terms of who was assigned to cover the encounter of the two teams and the way the stories were treated. Those familiar with the ethnic configuration of the two teams would tell you it was primarily a Luo and Luhya affair, just like athletics has been the preserve of Nilotes like Kalenjins and Maasai, except for a few odd balls here and there.

So there is this retired Luhya reporter who was AFC damu, the story goes, who was sent to cover a match between the two at City Stadium. Things went bad for his team and once back in the newsroom, he had a problem, a big one! Writing about the defeat of his team was akin to being asked to write one’s obituary minutes before being killed. After pacing around the newsroom thinking about how to render the story, a brainwave got into him and he rushed to his desk and punched away on his typewriter. The intro or first line of the story was: “AFC yesterday conceded two goals to the weaker side Gor Mahia with the aid of the wind and biased refereeing...”