- Participants at stakeholders’ forum stated that people elected to Football Kenya Federation leadership positions in Nakuru County are the main reason for the region’s poor football standards.
The county rarely produces players who are good enough to be selected into the National football team, Harambee Stars. The stakeholders associated this with poor management and gave suggestions to help in the revival of their standards.
Former Scarlet FC goalkeeper Washington Muhanji stated that Nakuru lacks leaders with the commitment of developing the game.
“It all starts with effective leadership from the club to the federation level,” Muhanji said.
Muhanji honored retired leaders including Secretary Charles Burundi, the former South Rift branch chairman Haroun Bomet, Transcom FC chairman David Mathai and former Nakuru KFF sub-branch chairman Abbas Parker.
“These were smart and dedicated officials during their time. This is lacking today,” he said
Nakuru has greatly failed in organizing Inter Estates Championships for the past six years, it helped in shaping some of the best talents in the nineties and the stakeholders blamed this for the dwindling fortunes.
Peter Kamau ‘Kempes’, a former Shabana and Kisumu Posta player attributed the dwindling fortunes to the collapse of companies that used to sponsor and finance teams in different leagues.
Kamau highlighted that players’ ambitions for the European leagues could have inferred with youth’s desire for the local football.
“The poor state of local football has shifted the focus of the youth and coaches to other leagues abroad,” Kamau stated.
“Electing incompetent leaders from the grassroots to the national level in Football Kenya Federation elections is the genesis of recurring problems that bedevil our game. We have failed to elect leaders on merit.” He added
Ken Kesho, who is a retired footballer, also shared his opinion on the matter. “With effective youthful leadership, sponsors could chip in. That eliminates the culture of not believing in youth football administrators,”
