Government failed Kenyans on CHAN
Football
By
Gilbert Wandera
| Sep 25, 2017
Lack of good and ready facilities is one of the biggest reason for missing such a huge sporting event.
If only the Jubilee government had built the five stadia they promised four years ago, perhaps Kenya would not have been stripped of the rights to host the Africa Nations Championships (Chan).
As it is, Kenyans are rightly angry that the second tier tournament will not be coming home as anticipated and it all goes to show just how lightly the government takes sports.
Kenya won the rights to host the tournament more than three years ago but instead of getting down to prepare the venues, other things were instead given priority.
Other governments would have fallen over themselves at the honour of hosting the whole of Africa and done everything possible to ensure they are ready at the required time.
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Hosting the Chan would just have been the perfect thing and gone along way to unite the country after the highly divisive political process.
But in typical fashion, no efforts were made to construct even one stadium during this time despite repeated promises by the government that plans were on-going to do the same and only at the last minute, some half-hearted measures taken to upgrade the earmarked venues.
Hosting the Chan tournament requires just four match venues and another eight for training, something that would have been easily achievable had the right kind of seriousness been exerted.
It is unforgivable that several CAF (Confederation of African Football) inspection teams came to Kenya and there were still no serious efforts made to comply with their requirements.
Apart from the national government, equally taking some blame are the county governments. Apart from the former Meru Governor, Peter Munya whose legacy includes an international stadium, many other governors have not done much in this area.
Perhaps if the governors understood the kind of benefits they would have stood to gain, they would have done more to build facilities in their areas.
Yesterday, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) captured the huge disappointment of missing out on the tournament by pointing out that they did their best to ensure the country hosted Chan.
But the federation sought to look at the positive side of the snub by pointing out that it marked a new dawn for Kenyan football in particular and sport in general due to the ongoing infrastructure development that endeavors to ensure that the country has at least four modern stadiums and a number of training pitches.