Fresh start or continuation doom?
Saturday was April Fools’ Day. On Thursday, the court cleared Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa of corruption and abuse of office charges. If the ruling had been made on Saturday, many of us would have taken the news with a pinch of salt.
Nevertheless, a section of the media reported that having been cleared of any charges by the court, Mwendwa had gone ahead and appointed Denis Oliech as the head coach of Harambee Stars! The story alluded to the fact that the FKF president was uncannily silent about the fate of the present national team coach Engin Firat; it also pointed out that Kenya has been forced to pay millions of shillings in compensation for breach of contract against past national team coaches!
My first reaction was that this news was in bad taste, even though it was an April Fools’ Day prank. Then I heard people I know reporting the same as a fact. That brought me back to reality! Kenyans expect blunders from FKF and anything reported that is negative is possible with the football body.
With the ending of the court case against Mwendwa we know that he will be back at the helm after the long hiatus in the cold — a personal agony which he blames on the former government and put squarely at the doorsteps of former Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed. With his multiple arrests and a Fifa ban imposed on Kenya, which was later lifted, we have seen only the downside of football in this country.
Kenya was restored to the international fold after the new Sports CS Ababu Namwamba was appointed and the country met the demands outlined by Fifa.
The flashy new Sports CS is still happy with the what he did to get Kenya out of the Fifa ban. We are sure he is still glowing in the limelight. We know he is still dancing and whistling like the proverbial Igbo lizard that fell from the high Iroko tree. We will let him enjoy the moment.
Our only worry is that we are still in the dark about what our “new” FKF boss thinks he can be done to improve our game. Does he come back with the same view that there’s no football talent in the country? Is there anything he dreams of that may better youth football? Did the period out of office finally take him on the road to Damascus to contemplate things anew? Is he going to seek vengeance on those who smiled at his tribulations? Is he back just to show that he is invincible?
We take this opportunity to welcome him back. We assure him we expect nothing from him and so he should shock us by doing great things for our football. Then, and only ,then shall we praise him. BY DAILY NATION
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