Grading Kenyan Sports associations in 2013

This page grades the Kenyan sports associations based on criteria like transparency, grassroots initiatives to popularize the sport, youth development, national team performance and improvement, web presence.

Grading Scale
Participation / Hosting and Performance in international competition	10 points
Web and Social Media presence	10 Points
Marketing, promotions and grassroots presence	10 points
Transparency	10 points
Youth development	10 points
Transparency	10 Points
Other Miscellaneous	40 Points

 

Athletics Kenya

Athletics Kenya gets plenty of miscellaneous points for the fact that in the past few years, Kenya is at the peak of its athletic powers. Never has Kenya been this dominant. Those who followed athletics in the early 1980s know that you can never take this for granted. In 1983

AK scored well in participation and hosting of events because aside from entering almost all international competitions, Kenya also hosted the 2011 Africa championships. However it is noted that Kenya is not well represented in sprints and field events.

Kenya does extremely well youth competitions which means grassroots athletics and youth development is alive and well. Mushc of this credit howoever goes to grassroots coaches like Bro O’Connell and former runners like Moses Kiptanui and Daniel Komen.

Athletics Kenya does have a website that appears to be updated regularly.

However Kenya has fallen behind in the sprints and there is no program to identify athletes with potential in the sprints, hurdles and field events. For those who do pursue those events , there is no technical assistance available.

Overall Grade: B

Kenya Rugby Football Union

KRFU looses miscelllaneous points for the shambolic way it ran the Kenya sevens team in 2012. There was tension and disunity within the coaching staff and a lack of defined roles that caused tension and confusion within the team. This year, Kenya did not prepare for the Elgon cup and as a result, they lost the cup to Uganda who took it far more seriously. Bragging rights thus went to Uganda

They gain points for the fact that Kenya is still one of the top sevens teams in Africa. There is a semblance of youth development in rugby but it is extremely limited both in scope and in geographical area.

KRFU also gains points for having a website that is kept up to date along with a presence in social media. Also KRFU has taken steps to promote the game outside its traditional centres. Rugby is now one of the most popular sports all over Kenya.

KRFU lost points in the area of transparency due to the fact that in 2012, it was plagued by a number of financial scandals.

It has to be said however that girls rugby is lagging far behind. There is no womens rugby at schools or in Universities and KRFU does not seem interested in promoting it even now that girls rugby is an Olympic sport.

KRFU has hosted many events including the African championships, world junior championships and the sevens world cup qualifiers.

Overall grade : C+

Kenya Premier League

The KPL earns points for having brought a semblance of normalcy to a league that for many years had been chaotic. Kenya players can now look forward to actually paying their rent by playing football.

They however do not have a title sponsor after 5 years of existence.  They havent taken any strong steps to promote the league all over the country at the grassroots. Why not host some top 8 games in places like Limuru, Siaya, Embu, Malindi etc ?

Asking each team to have an under 19 team is good. However without proper youth development it is a waste. Players are still not getting drilled in the skills they will need to become accomplished players. Aside from Thika United and Mathare, none of the clubs take youth development seriously.

They lost a lot of points when in the last election they decided to promote one of their own to run for the top office instead of supporting the leading pro-reform candidate as Kenyans supported. It was a selfish move and it cost Kenya the election of a good candidate who would have galvanized the sport.

Overall Grade: C+

Kenya Volleyball Federation

KVF gains points for the fact that the Kenya womens team is still amongst the top teams in Africa. However one could say that the success of Kenya in womens volleyball is not as a result of any initiatives by KVF. For years, schools like Mukumu girls and Lugulu girls have been the development school in which Kenya’s volleyball talent is groomed. It is therefore the grassroots coaches who deserve credit. KVF as far as we know does not have any sustained youth development schemes that are geared towards scouting and recruiting good players and grooming them into top tier players. Talent development is still left to individual schools and now the national youth talent academy sponsored by UNICEF.

Because of lack of youth development, Kenya has recently been passed by other African teams such as Algeria and Cameroun. Signs project that Tunisia will soon pass Kenya. They have excellent youth development.

KVF earns points for hosting almost half of the continental competitions at both national and club level. Kenya is a fixture at each continental tournament and has often qualified for global events.

There is no evidence of any grassroots tournaments or an inter provincial tournament or anything of the sort that can draw fans to games. Volleyball is very easy to promote. You can take the sports to the mitaa and organize a tournament along the lines of Sakata ball. Without companies like Pipeline and Kenya prisons sponsoring teams, volleyball would be as good as dead. However KVF should realize that grassroots tournaments that draw on communities can draw larger crowds than a league with corporate teams. A tournament pitting different counties and cities against each other will be a much larger draw.

Overall grade : C

Kenya Basketball Federation

The Kenya mens and womens basketball teams have not qualified for any continental event in almost two decades.

Youth development by KBF is non-existent. Yet this is a sport where scouting the right type of players at a young age and drilling them to master fundamentals is critical. The only youth development happening is from individual schools like Maseno, Shimba Hills, Upper Hill, Laiser Hill, some of whom are assisted by UNICEF.

KBF does not seem to have made serious attempt to develop grassroots basketball. Again the game is highly dependent on corporate entities like Cooperative Bank and KPA without which the game would not exist. Here again grassroots tournaments would draw better crowds than a league full of corporate teams. Inter-Estate, inter constituency and inter-county leagues have a better chance of drawing crowds and sponsors. KBF did gain some points for marketing and promotion because there is an Inter-City tournament pitting cities all over East Africa.

Whereas the game used to have a sponsor in the 1990s (Del Monte), there has been no sponsor in almost two decades. The lack of a sponsor makes it difficult for self supported teams like Eagle wings to survive.

KBF has no web presence or any presence in social media.

Overall grade D-

Football Kenya Limited

The previous FKF administration led by Mr. Hatimy earned a grade of zero because they literally did nothing. The new administration earns points because it has taken some steps to revive football. Kenya now enters into youth tournaments for both girls and boys and there is a semblance of good organization in the national team.

However FKF loses a lot of miscellaneous points by demanding that every sponsor deposit 20% of their total sponsorship package. This is corruption of the highest order. Sadly some sponsors like EABL have already acceded to this demand.

FKF has no youth development scheme. National youth team players are selected via tryouts which is a disastrous policy.

They have no presence on the web. The only FKF website ever created basically plagiarized text and pictures from www.kenyapage.net and was never updated again.

By demanding that every sponsor deposit 20% of the sponsorship money, FKF is actually killing grassroots football so they get few points.

Overall Grade: D

Ministry of sports

The ministry of sport earns some points for supporting the National Youth talent centres. However there arent enough of these. Ideally there should be 2 or 3 in every province. And that initiative probably would not exist without UNICEF.

Also, the ministry has been promising to pass the sports policy paper in parliament to streamline how sports is run in the country. Kenyans have waited for 10 years and got nothing but promise after unfulfilled promise.

The ministry is reactive and not proactive. Like a fire brigade, they wait until matters have reached crisis mode before stepping in to remedy the situation. Most sports associations in Kenya are poorly run but the ministry does not hold them accountable. It does not set goals for any association. It does not monitor performance of any association. It pretty much lets officials run the sport into the ground and in the process destroy the hopes and aspirations of Kenyan youth.

Once a sport has been run into the ground, the sports minister then makes a grandiose speech decrying poor administration then disappears again. The previous sports minister, Dr Hellen Sambili was especially egregious in this aspect. But other sports ministers have not been much better.

Sports infrastructure in Kenya is poor. Most Kenyan stadia were built before Independence by the British and have not been updated nor have any new stadia been built over the last 25 years.

Overall grade: D

Amateaur Boxing Association of Kenya

This is perhaps the worst run sports association in Kenya. Only one Kenyan boxer qualified for the 2012 Olympics. Yet this a country which in the 1970s and 80s sent a full team of 12 boxers. And ABA did not bother to provide this single qualifier with logistical support as he prepared for the games. He has had to fend for himself and pay his own gym fees. It is inevitable that he will be eliminated in round 1

Back in 2004, the IOC announced that womens boxing will be part of the games in 2012. Most countries started training young female boxers as far back as 6 years ago. ABA did no such thing. Kenyan female boxers recently went to China to participate in an Olympic qualifier. They were all destroyed in the first round. It is not surprising because they had not participated in any tournaments before this and thus had very littl exposure. The trip was China was just a joyride for boxing officials who knew fully well that their boxers never stood a chance of qualifying. It is amazing that the ministry of sport allowed such an ill prepared team to travel to China.

Boxing used to be one of the most popular sports in the country. League matches were well attended and covered by the media. Incompetence at ABA has played a key role in its waning popularity.

In the 70s and 80s, Kenya were not only Africa boxing champions but also Commonwealth games champions. Now countries like Algeria dominate the Africa scene and Kenyans are lucky to win 1 or 2 bronze medals at any African contest.

And of course it comes as no surpise that they have no website after all this years. It should be mentioned however that they have one still under construction.

Overall grade: D-

Summary

Grading Scale
Participation / Hosting and Performance in international competition	10 points
Web and Social Media presence	10 Points
Marketing, promotions and grassroots presence	10 points
Transparency	10 points
Youth development	10 points
Other Miscellaneous	50 Points

 

Grading Scale	Athletics (AK)	Rugby (KRFU	Volleyball (KVF)	Basketball (KBF)	Premier League (KPL)	Football (FKF)	Boxing (ABA)
Participation / Hosting and Performance in international competitions	10	8	8	3	7	7	3
Web and Social Media presence	9	9	4	2	7	0	2
Marketing, promotions and grassroots presence	5	9	4	4	5	3	1
Youth development	8	5	3	3	7	4	1
Transparency	2	0	0	0	2	0	0
Other Miscellaneous	40	35	30	20	30	25	20
Total Marks	74	66	49	32	58	39	27
Grade	B+	B	C-	D-	C+	D	E

KCSE Grading scale A (80% and above) A- (79- 75) B+ (70-74) B (65-69) B-
(60-65) C+ (55-59) C (50-54) C- (45-49) D+ (40-44) D (35-39) D- (30-34) E (0-29)

 

Kenya Sports Page