Dear Hon. Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen,
First and foremost, congratulations for being nominated Cabinet Secretary for Sports and Arts by President William Samoei Ruto. I wish you well in the scheduled vetting process., secondly apologies accepted.
Let me take you through a few things I know in sports that you are also aware of right now but in a couple of months might fade off your mind so quickly due to pressure of work and interests from the outside world which will be more personally beneficial compared to “sports development construction”.
Many ministers have fallen into this hollow selfish traps unknowingly, some intentionally therefore making them worst serving ministers of sports compared to the previous ones. Before appointments, nominations they appear the right officers for the position only to get lost in the mix up of the cartels’ interests.
I will encourage readers of this article to also advise you and reveal what has been ailing sports for the longest, therefore affecting our standards in all sporting disciplines within the region and internationally.
I am sure as I write, you are already receiving lots of calls from the crooks and cartels of sports in Kenya, they will push you to align with them, hold you hostage therefore brainwashing your intentions and also giving you wrong information on the state of sports in various disciplines.
Secondly, they will scare you of repercussions if certain decisions are or are not made, they will want to scare you so that their deals and intentions are protected and served.
I will, now, ask you a question that will jog your mind – change is as good as a rest, right? Have you ever asked yourself why, for many many years, we have had different ministers of sports who have failed in delivering their defined mandates? It is simple, cartels are stationed within the sports ministry.
Ministers come and go, but officials and employees of the ministry have remained the same and have worked with all sports ministers. I am not advocating for anyone to be fired, but maybe (they should be) transferred to different ministries (and) if this is not done you will still fall into the same trap your predecessors have fallen into.
We will come back here and confirm the same in a few years.
Let me quickly switch gears and speak about that one that I played and served in as a vice president – football.
We have never had a minister that was able to resolve issues that today has massacred our football standards since independence. Are you that minister that will finally bring the house to order and also clean up?
In case you go through your vetting, just do the right things in that ministry. Kenyans are a part of the game in this country and not just a few selfish cartels, consult widely waziri. Be on the ground and meet the actual sports stakeholders. Don’t plan, (but) run an ambush (of going) to the villages and listen to the deep and passionate sports enthusiasts, have sessions with them on stopovers. That is the only way for you to understand the problems we have in sports, if you don’t do that and go the official way, you will be duped because the officials of the games will plant flowers on your walking path to impress you, hiding the truth from you.
All appointed sports ministers have failed us because they never wanted to follow the rule of law.
(Former) CS (Ambassador) Amina Mohammed was very close (to getting it right) but time was not on her side.
Right now, to begin with, I foresee a problem and a big one. Court cases are going to be the order of the day (but) this can be avoided if we follow the law, treat everyone equally and make football all-inclusive.
The current regime period (term) of office has expired, but as I write, they are already chest-thumping and giving orders on how the next elections shall be run. The electoral code which was rejected by the Sports Dispute Tribunal as “not” all inclusive, is what the current office brags with using it as a defense that assures them of re-election (yet) the electoral code is not in line with the Sports Act 2013,.
If you want to survive and also do the right things in the sports ministry because right now all eyes are on you, just do the right things. I think it is not your responsibility to make sports decisions since you have a very good guide book in (the) Sports Act 2013 that has everything, implement the rules and go on holiday waziri. Trust me it is as simple as that.
You have a lot of reading to do already, even before your vetting day. Go hide yourself in a private place and read that book, when done you will understand why your predecessors have not been following the simple laws that guide sports in Kenya.
Boss, make use of (Sports) Registrar Rose Wasike. That iron lady will help you streamline a lot of things. Wasike does not know a brother or friend in sports, she is so professional and non partisan. Thank me later.
If you qualify to run that sports office, do the right things, do not entertain side deals and Influence from the cartels 9and) consult, consult, consult, consult with sports people. Get to the ground and do lots of public participation, that way you will understand the problems affecting sports, and go deep.
Why do we need Big Stadiums when we do not have players to play in them, fix the mess first.
When you do public participation, do it quietly. We need results more than publicity, we will still know at the end of the day you held a meeting. Sports people talk.
Lastly, Yanga of Tanzania just beat Kaizer Chiefs 4-0 in the Toyota Cup yesterday (Saturday) in South Africa. That speaks a lot about how sports is run in Tanzania, a country that was below us in terms of standards and everything else.
I will leave it at that, I will keep writing just to encourage you to do the right things.
