Harambee Starlets' situation should worry us

National women football team HarambeeStarlets seem to be going down at an alarming rate. The Kenyan girls are supposed to be the top side in East Africa, but what happened in Rwanda last week, during at the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) Championships does not in anyway show that they are the region’s top team.

They were the only side from East Africa to play at the Africa Women Cup of Nations finals in 2016 in Cameroon, but to drop from playing at the top level in Africa to finishing last in Cecafa competition is unacceptable. As if that is not enough, Starlets also lost to Tanzania in the 2016 Cecafa final in Uganda when they were tipped to lift the trophy and the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) should have seen the signs that all was not well in young ladies' camp. This is a team that has been the pride of our football considering the men’s team has turned from HarambeeStars to ‘Harambee stress’ in the eyes of many Kenyans.

FKF should wake up and smell the coffee by realising that if they don’t give the young ladies the attention, then women football will collapse. They, therefore, need to do a postmortem on the team and ensure they also strive to lift the women game as our girls have looked promising and who knows, they could play at the World Cup before the men’s team.

FKF boss Nick Mwendwa and his team must treat this as a matter of urgency. Kenyans are waiting to see their beloved team back to winning ways once again.