Grading Kenyan Sports Associations

Grading Scale

The Kenya Football Federation

• Since the advent of the Maina Kariuki era in 2000, the KFF has been beset by one corruption scandal after another. Maina Kariuki promising to radically transform the way football was run in the country. Little did Kenyans know that he saw an opportunity to make a fortune. He looted the KFF coffers with impunity. More than KSH 25 million dissapeared mysetriously under his watch.
• Succesive KFF administrations have failed miserably. No attempt has been made to introduce financial transparency. kenya is still one of the few countries with no national youth developments system. As a result Kenya hardly ever enters youth tournaments. Kenyan players who are talented frequently flop at European trials due to their lack of fundamentals. A result of the lack of youth development.
• Kenya's predicament was best summed up by French coach Bernard Lama when he said "I knew there were problems in Africa but Kenya is too much. the officials cannot even do basic things". Suffice to say that Lama was quickly got rid of by Alfred Sambu and Dan Omino.
• Nothing has been done to modernize the sport. there is no merchandizing, no Internet presence, no visible public relations
• KFF officials have abetted poor management at community clubs by constantly trying to find ways to help them avoid relegation.

Alfred Sambu was simply the next one in a long line of officials whose vested interest destroyed the sport.

Grade: F

Athletics Kenya

Positives:

1. AK maintains a fairly decent website which attempts to give information about Kenyan athletes and AK activities. An attempt is made at showing transparency on the website as AK accounts are audited and published.
2. AK has succeeded in organizing an annual circuit known as the Eveready Jackpot. Kenyan athletes are therefore able to earn money from local meets which provides motivation
3. AK is actively involved in development of youth. This is evidenced by Kenya's exemplary performance at global youth events.
4. Isaiah Kiplagat's decision to give up his ticket in order to allow a volleyball player to attend the All African games is the kind of selflessness Kenyans wish their sports officials had.

Negatives:

1. AK has completely abandoned sprints and field events. Their excuse is that no local coaches are capable of teaching these events. Why not spend some money and invite foreign experts to come and hold seminars and training sessions with local coaches.
2. The scouting, identification, and development of youth with potential still leaves a lot to be desired especially for sprints where all the talent is wasted. There is still a lot of talent that goes to waste. Some runners like Noah N'geny and Alex Kipchirchir only took up athletics by accident after finishing school.
3. The fact that most Kenyan schools lack basic equipments such as hurdles and pole vault bars is an indictment on AK, as is the fact that talented young athletes will always flop at international events because they have not been trained in proper techniques.
4. The fact that many upcoming athletes use obsolete methods such as the belly flop method to do the high jump is a further indictment on AK. It shows that they are not taking the initiative to train athletics teachers on proper technique.
5. There is no coherent strategy for youth development. Much depends on the efforts of grassroots coaches such as Brolm O'Connell. What Kenya needs is a system to identify young athletes with potential, award them secondary school scholarships and expose them to the best training.

Kenya has absolutely no hope in sprints and field events unless AK takes the initiative to correct the lack of proper training among Kenya's top athletes. This lovely young lady doing the belly flop was competing at the national athletics competition for schools

Grade: B-

Kenya Rugby Football Union

Positives:

1. The Super 4 series is a an excellent idea and provides high level competition for players and provides motivation by giving players something to strive for.
2. Each of the four franchises in 2006 had full sponsorship.
3. KRFU has created a competitive sevens circuit and succeeded in getting sponsorship for several of the event tournaments
4. That Kenya is one of the core IRB sevens members is no mean feat.
5. KRFU maintains what is probably the best and most up to date rugby website in Africa other than South Africa.

Negatives:

1. The fiasco that led to Kenyan youth players being stranded and harassed by foreign customs officials was directly attributable to certain KRFU officials. However no action was taken against said officials and Richard Omwela's promise to follow through proved to be more hot air. Instead, Paul Odera, an up and coming coach was lost
2. No youth development scheme exists. Other African nations such as Zimbabwe and Namibia have successfully implemented such systems as is evidenced by their excellent performance at U-19 tournaments. The least Kenyan officials could do is investigate what these nations are doing.
3. While women's rugby is quickly growing on a global scale, the KRFU has completely ignored women's rugby.
4. There is no coherent long term strategy for Kenya rugby and if there is one, the public has not been informed. Nobody knows what the long term vision for Kenya rugby is. At least the fans don't. Will Kenya rugby always stay in amateur status ?
5. Although Kenya is now a core member of the IRB seens circuit, there is still no measure of consistency in their performance which fluctuates like a pendulum.
6. The decision not to re-sign the French coach from the 2006 season is regrettable because he took Kenya to previously unscaled heights and brought a measure of consistency

Grade: C+

Kenya Volleyball Federation

Positives:

1. For nearly 2 decades now, Kenya has maintained its status as the top African nation in women's volleyball.
2. Kenya has participated in every Africa cup and almost every world cup and Olympics over the past 2 decades.

Negatives:

1. Unlike in other nations where potential volleyball players are identified as early as age 6, and trained from that point on, Kenya has no system in place to scout and identify players with potential and no system to groom them into international calibre players.
2. Each time Kenya fails at a global event the reasons for Kenya's failure are discussed at length but no action is ever taken to remedy the situation.
3. Volleyball is as good as dead in most of the provinces and the KVF has not seen it fit to find ways to revive provincial leagues or even create an Inter-provincial competition.
4. The Kenyan national league needs to create a competition that can generate public interest say by pitting various towns against each other or various provinces against each other. The current league dominated by institutional teams will struggle to draw public interest.

Catherine Wanjiru in action against Japan at the 2006 World Championships		Dorcas Ndasaba in action against Poland

Grade: C

Kenya Basketball Federation

Positives:

1. An intercity tournament pitting Kenyan cities against other East African cities has been created and could help popularize the sport by creating
2. The KBF has finally taken it upon itself to raise funds for the participation of local teams in continental tourneys.

Negatives

1. Unlike Uganda, the KBF has no sponsorship for any of its activities.
2. Kenya has not participated in a senior continental tournament in more than a decade due to the KBFs inability to raise funds.
3. No viable youth development system exists outside the efforts of certain individuals, yet basketball is a game that thrives on fundamentals learned at a young age. 
4. The KBF does not participate in any youth tournaments. When Kenya played in the 2006 Africa youth cup, it was actually Maseno high school that sent a team.
5. The Kenyan national league needs to create a competition that can generate public interest say by pitting various towns against each other or various provinces against each other. The current league dominated by institutional teams will struggle to draw public interest.
6. Although basketball is extremely popular in Kenya, KBF has failed to build on this platform by marketing the sport further or engaging in aggresive public relations or creating an Inter-regional tournament like the immesely popular Safaricom Super 8 that can draw crowds by building on neighborhood or town loyalties.
7. When KCB Lions participated in the Africa club cup in December of 2006 they lost 4 of 5 games. However they came back with recommendations which they thought ought to be implemented by the KBF. They suggested changes in officiating of matches and administration. However henry Shihemi, a KBF official became defensive and came out publicly to claim that the KBF cannot be blamed for the poor performance of Kenyan clubs. rather than be defensive, Mr. Shihemi should take such comments as constructive criticism. Mr Shihemi ought to realize that the lack of a youth program results in lower quality players and this  is indeed KBF's responsibility. Kenyan clubs cant do well if the players cannot play with the best.

As this match between Ulinzi and KCB shows, basketaball can draw crowds in Kenya. Its up to the KBF to build upon its popularity.

Grade: C-

Kenya Boxing Association

Positives:

Kenya seems to be slowly coming to terms with the computerized system as is evidenced by the slight improvement at the 2006 commonwealth games. Too bad it has taken two decades.

Negatives

1. Kenya has lost its perch as the top African and indeed the top boxing nation in the commonwealth largely due to its failure to rapidly adapt to changes in international boxing.
2. Due to its inability to raise funds, Kenya rarely participates in International tourneys anymore. Gone are the days when Kenya featured prominently in the Kings cup among others. This lack of exposure has been a key factor in the plummeting of boxing standards.

   Grade: D+

Management of Football Clubs in Kenya

Positives

1. Mathare United's work in developing young players and given themn opportunities in life speaks for itself.
2. Mumias Sugar have built what is probably one of the best stadiums in Kenya.

Negatives

• Community clubs are led by individuals who are bereft of ideas on how to market their teams, do not understand the importance of public relations, make no effort to win new fans.
• Community clubs have no clue on how to attract new, younger fans. As a result , they do not have any support among the younger generation unlike in years past.
• Modern ideas such as merchandizing and Internet presence are completely foreign to the management of community clubs.
• Many officials feel it is beneficial to hide club affairs from members. They don't realize that this alienates fans. Fans are more likely to attend matches if they feel involved or informed in the clubs day to day activities.
• Some Institutional teams like Tusker have existed for 3 decades or more yet they have never built a fan base, do not perform community projects and do nothing to endear themselves to the public. Corporations like KCB and Tusker would be better off borrowing a leaf from SafariCom and sponsoring a grassroots tournament or an Inter-Provincial tournament. Their products would get more mileage. Their football teams do nothing to enhance brand equity. 
• Aside from Mathare, no Kenyan team has a viable youth development scheme. Even Mathare's success at producing top calibre players is highly debatable. In its 2 decades of existence, we are yet to see players emerge from MYSA and end up in top European leagues. Dennis Oliech who made it largely due to his natural talents is very raw and lacks basic skills.

Grade: D+

The Kenya National Sports Council (KNSC)

Negatives

There is no coherent sports policy or direction or framework coming the KNSC. This is supposed to be the body that formulates sports policy and ensures that other associations adhere to it. Ideally the KNSC should meet with each sports association and set yearly targets for each sports association. As we all know, most Kenyan associations do nothing besides running the league. There are hardly any public relations activities aimed at popularizing the sport, zero marketing, no accountability and transpaerency and general ineptness. The KNSC it appears has been reduced to the role of fighting fires. They only step in when a controversy surfaces in one of the associations. To put it plainly, the KNSC is a waste of space, time and money. They have not done anything of note in four decades of existence.

Grade: D

The Ministry of Sports

If there is any body that has the power to bring abut positive change it is the Ministry of Sports. yet they have time and again failed to do this. They have yet to realize that sports in general can be an economic driving force, creating loads of employment and raising the financial fortunes of Kenyans was documented in a past article

Moreover sports can be a way to keep the youth  busy and away from idleness which often leads to drug use and criminal activity. Sports is also an excellent way to raise self esteem among individual youth as has been proven in countless studies. The Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) has shown how much programs can be a catalyst not just for producing excellent sportsmen, but it can present children who would not otherwise have any hope something to live for. There is no reason the government cannot emulate MYSA and create similar youth centers all over the country.

But most importantly, the government has yet to realize that sports is at the heart of many Kenyans and any government that supports sports will get the votes of a good number of Kenyans . The government can do this by building more stadia all over the country, upgrading current facilities, providing land for sports facilities and supporting community and town based teams.

Kenya has had a string of sports ministers who were inept, did not understand the first thing about sports. Others had good intentions but lacked the vision or the willpower to transform Kenya sports.  Some have resorted to taking sides and failed to resolve disagreements impartially.

The much talked about Sports policy paper which is supposed to address shortcomings in Kenyan sports associations is stuck in some government office somewhere gathering dust and has never even come close to being tabled in parliament.

The government has yet to come to terms with the fact that sports can be a driving force for tourism. Its refusal to support Kenya's bid to host the 2009 rugby sevens world cup is a case in point

Grade: D+

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