After Kenya’s exit from the Africa Cup of Nations, time has come for the football stakeholders to ask hard questions about the preparations and performance of the national team Harambee Stars.
While we all take pride at having our team qualify in the competition for the first time in 15 years, the manner in which we were eliminated brought sadness and gloom to the entire nation.
Granted, we were in a tough group that also had Algeria and a star studded Senegal, but we cannot accept a failure of such magnitude.
The government gave the federation KSh240 million and a further KSh40 million plus from other sources, including KSh26M from the Confederation of Africa Football; making Kenya one of the best funded teams going into the AFCON.
How was this money spent?
We must be told who were in the contingent that travelled to France and to Cairo on the federation account and what role, if any, were they playing in the team and how much was spent on their travel?
While other teams held their pre tournament residential camps in North Africa and countries neighbouring Egypt, the FKF opted to take the team to France where climatic conditions are different and harsh. Who made this decision and why?
From the performance where we conceded seven goals- which is among the highest in the tournament- and only scored three, it is clear we lacked depth in the team.
That the three goals were against our neighbours Tanzania raises more questions than answers.
Why were some of the best players left out of the squad? Was there interference from the executive in selecting the final list of players to the team?
The quality of a coach is judged by the performance of the team. Is Sebastian Migne the right man for the Harambee Stars job?
It is unfortunate that while some countries hitherto considered minnows are now performing better than Kenya.
It is a clear indicator that the current management of football in the country has let Kenyans down by interfering with selection of players to the national team for selfish reasons.
The FKF top management has turned the national team to a private entity making decisions without looking at the national interest. Harambee Stars belongs to Kenyans and not an individual.
We shall not sit back and watch as Harambee Stars is turned into an extension on some individuals private club.
We are now demanding accountability from the federation on how it spent public money on the AFCON preparations and participation failure to which the government should take action.
