FKF President Nick Mwendwa has a word with Harambee Star's Head Coach Paul Put (second left) during CECAFA Challenge Cup match between Harambee Stars and Tanzania at Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos County. Dec 8, 2017. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

If you want to know a mansion is about to crumble, just look at its pillars. If you see cracks, the house is in danger. The same can be said of soccer.

Kenya’s withdrawal from the 2018 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) was a big indicator we are not out of the woods. But there are several small issues, which if not corrected, will sink the future of football in Kenya even deeper.

Take stadiums for instance. It is difficult to imagine that a country like Kenya does not have a single functional stadium in Nairobi. With or without CHAN, all our worthy facilities are either under renovation or the owners have no clue why they are not operational.

City Stadium, the most convenient and fans’ favourite venue, was closed sometimes in 2017. Like any other government facility, the closure was sudden and without any work plan.   

Whereas the closure was done when the county was under Governor Dr Evans Kidero, the new regime under Mike Sonko has not helped matters. The public communication about its status is also hazy and unclear. Nobody seems to know its fate.

Nyayo Stadium, another popular venue due to its convenience, is yet another sad story. It was closed for renovation in preparation for CHAN 2018. Government operatives fell over each other showing how the facility would be ready for inspection and before December 2017.

The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) boss shouted himself hoarse how Kenya was ready to host matches. A contractor was hired to start repairs and bulldozers were moved to the site, Kenyan style. The media was dragged into the whole fray and PR visits were planned to give the impression that all was well.

 Today, if you pass along Aerodrome Road near the facility, and peep through the gates, you will see a bush of what used to be the playing pitch, weeds and all.

That is the playing surface which the Sports PS, flanked by the main contractor, said last week would have been ready by April this year. When will the grass be planted to grow and mature to be played on? Your guess is as good as mine.

Now, let us move on to Safaricom Stadium  at the Kasarani Sports Complex.

This is our main stadium built in 1987 to ‘international standards,’ yet it’s perennially under renovation. It could be the pitch being worked on today or the seats tomorrow...or repainting or electronic system repairs.  Kasarani is like a sick patient who is always wheeled to the theatre for emergency operations.

With the three Nairobi stadiums under lock and key, the city is left with nothing for off-season football activities. One had to attend the just-concluded Koth Biro tournament in Nairobi’s Ziwani estate to see how starved Nairobians are for any kind of soccer. For once, the small untidy venue was attended by several ‘slay queens’ who graced the Ziwani Umeme grounds in colourful attires, reminding Nairobians how soccer patronage has shifted.

Since the SportPesa league ended last year, few clubs have engaged in friendly matches to try out new players and test new formations. We are in mid-January and nobody is talking strongly about new recruitments or transfers. The market is not abuzz with news about who is buying or selling who? Something is indeed not right, or am I just being paranoid?

Such a time a few years ago, the whole soccer scene would be awash with news, speculations and rumours about player movements across clubs. The grapevine would even talk about foreign transfers and which player wanted out to go for trials. There would be news about which upcoming youngster is hiding from salivating club brokers. All these are no more and we should ask ourselves why?

The nail on our coffin was of course the withdrawal of sponsorship by SportPesa. Institutions are not only made of physical facilities or infrastructure like stadiums, but the unseen mood and spirit of the supporters. It is not something you can measure, but like inflation or a bad economy, you will have an inner feeling that things are not as they ought to be.

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