CHAN saga has further exposed Mwendwa as a talker

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

For the past week, Kenya’s sports lovers have been talking about 2018 African Nations Championships (CHAN) whose hosting rights Kenya was stripped of due to fumbling and bungling of the country’s sports administrators.

Also talking about CHAN are Kenya’s politicians, that species which is more adept at foaming at the mouth without as much as engaging their brains where sports is concerned.

While this second group is giving all sorts of lame excuses and skirting around the real reasons which informed the decision of Confederation of African Football (CAF), it should not be lost on Kenyans that in September, Kenya also lost a chance to host a cricket event.

Just before Caf Executive Committee made its decision on 2018 CHAN hosting rights, International Cricket Council (ICC) moved a leg of the World Cricket League Championship from Nairobi to East London in South Africa.

The championship, pitting Kenya against the Netherlands was to be played in Nairobi from 6 to 8 October, but ICC couldn’t risk bringing foreign players to Kenya due to security reasons.

Unlike CHAN 2018, the playing grounds wasn’t a problem as many an international cricket tournaments have been held in Nairobi over the years. Also, countries with even better sporting and security infrastructure, big fan bases and corporate sponsorship which generate billions of dollars have at some point fallen short of ICC’s security requirements and lost hosting chances and their politicians and sports administrators didn’t give lame excuses which exposed their ignorance of modern sports management processes and their inability to improve sports in their countries.

In Kenya, talk is cheap, and when it comes to sports, more so 2018 CHAN, Football Kenya Federation boss Nick Mwendwa and Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario make talk cheapest and worthless.

I have pointed out here before, Mwendwa needs to talk less and also stop throwing tantrums and going into infantile rages like a schoolboy who just discovered his manly capabilities.

Without any prompting, he swore to resign in the event Kenya loses the 2018 CHAN hosting rights and this year, with much bravado and uncalled-for excitement, he promised to deliver new kits for the national football teams and replica kits for fans, which did not materialise.

When Caf made its decision, he changed tune saying he won’t resign because it wasn’t his fault — he suddenly forgot he was harping that 2018 Chan being held in Kenya was his responsibility.

It wouldn’t be fair to call him a liar mainly because he is worse, but it isn’t wrong to submit that Kenya’s failure to host 2018 CHAN has further exposed him as a talker, not a doer, who is ignorant of how sports is managed in the modern world — and prepared Kenyans for more disappointments as far as football is concerned.