State’s mumbo jumbo on Stadia not funny

Watching Sports PS Kirimi Kaberia addressing the media and re-assuring, for a millionth time, with a straight face, that Nyayo Stadium will soon be ready, must have left a bitter taste in the mouths of sports men and women. That the PS’ gleeful re-assurance was not even meant for the sports people, but for Jamhuri Day celebrations must surely mean nothing for the long suffering Kenya youth.

For a moment, forget about Jubilee’s promises of five world class stadia. But when a government lies to the rest of the world through State officials that it will be ready to host the Africa Nations Championships in January of 2018 and by the end of the year all what is seen is rubble of concrete, it becomes a bitter pill to swallow. It raises not just moral questions, but the very integrity of State officials making such pronouncements. The poor state of sports facilities has made it impossible for Kenya’s youth to train and play in befitting stadia.

Time has come for the Presidency to stop paying lip service to sports. It may not be a coincidence that the people appointed, over the years, to head sports entities do not know the worth of sports industry.

In fact, the sports docket has always been reward plank in the political game. How else would one explain PS Kaberia’s mumbo jumbo spanning his entire tenure at the Sports ministry? It will be interesting to hear President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-assurance yet again on December 12.