VIhiga County Government Should Take A Genuine interest in Helping Fight FOOTBALL POVERTY.

KENYAN COUNTY GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR CONTINUED ROLE IN PROMOTING FOOTBALL POVERTY: VIHIGA COUNTY, A CASE STUDY.
Kenya has one of the most progressive constitutional structures of government and governance. In 2010, the country put in place two levels of governance which were meant to facilitate service delivery, equitable resource allocation and distribution among other things. This form of governance is clear on sports, arts and culture being under county administrations.
County governments were mandated with the role of ensuring that proper structures are put in place to identify, nurture and grow sports, arts and cultural talents. In the wake of the second decade of the twenty first century, ten years after the constitutional promulgation and seven years after the first county administrations were put in place there is little to show by most governments in this effect. However my limited understanding of other fields will only place me in the area of soccer and how much has been done and achieved.
Vihiga County has made commendable strides in ensuring that the soccer game grows and in effect bring fourth an environment for further work. The establishment of Vihiga United and Vihiga Queens are some of the great success stories. These two football clubs which are bankrolled to a great extent by the county government coffers are an indication of how the county administration is willing to act in matters soccer development.
However it should not be forgotten that sports development is a multifaceted situation. Building sports teams is one thing, but identifying, nurturing and growing talents is totally another matter. Every year the county administration through the Vihiga County Sports Association holds a football tournament aimed at fulfilling the above mentioned objectives which is very commendable. But the continued use of this tournament as a political tool has in a very big way curtailed the very reasons it is carried out for. Another matter, the organisers of the tournament have consistently ignored the role of the Football Kenya Federation in managing of local football.
The intentions of the sports tournament therefore are questionable. It is also worth noting the amount of preparedness towards these tournament is in a big way not as effective. Why allocate over ten millions shillings (which I agree is little by virtue of the magnitude of the tournaments) towards a tournament whose objectives are: i) Not entirely football oriented? ii) a scapegoat for a few individuals to eat?
The tournament has gone through two editions with entirely no engagement with possible sponsors and stakeholders. What this results into is a situation where the Return on investment for such a venture is nearly zero. If we have to look around for a sample on how best to organize a successful football tournaments, we have the Kakamega edition of Malala Cup and the Chapa Dimba na Safaricom editions. These tournaments indicate a certain will to put forward mechanisms at player identification and development even though unsatisfactorily.
The biggest threat to talent identification and development in Vihiga County however is not the yearly tournament but rather the missing willingness to set up a functional sports talent identification and development centre. The daily narrative remains the inadequacy in resources, however a man will ask does the county administration know of any possible linkages for partnership around sports talent centres? Since I am here to face the problem let me recommend some few possibilities. A partnership with an international football club would never be ignored if that request came from a county government. A partnership with a local school that is already offering some opportunities wouldn't be difficult either. Placing in an official expression of interest with any of the following organizations Football Kenya Federation(FKF), Confederation of African Football (CAF) Federation of International Football and Associations(FIFA)would receive a lot of interest from these organizations.
However these perpetrators of FOOTBALL POVERTY have no such intentions to give young people an honest opportunity to maximize on their potential and talents. They act with scorn and pretence to reassure themselves of public support but deep down they sneer at the possibility of bringing forth a platform for youths to actively engage in sports as an income generating activity. We all have a role to play to see that everyone has an honest opportunity to achieve as much as they can possibly achieve.
To the County Government of Vihiga you have a big role to play in contributing towards eliminating FOOTBALL POVERTY among the young people from economically disadvantaged communities in Vihiga County. You can join these noble cause to see a turn around in affairs for the sport we all so much love. I however have a few recommendations as you ponder over this:
1. Consider an approach to the yearly Vihiga Sports Tournament that motivates engagement of major stakeholders and partners.
2. Work at mechanism for the establishment of a talent centre as you have continuously promised.
3. Depoliticise the Vihiga County Sports Tournament. Make it as much about football as possible.
4. Please support the efforts to commercialise the sports programs and teams in your budgets. It is not possible for Vihiga United for instance to get a commercial sponsor if there is no indication that it has potential to control a market share.
5. Vihiga United FC and Vihiga Queens FC should have youth structures that one is something we cannot run away from.
6. Build sports facilities, not necessarily stadiums but investing in setting up sports grounds that not only show some aesthetic view but also are safe for players(mainly the young players).
It is important to note though, no one can lecture a government on proper governance. This therefore implies that the County government of Vihiga has enough resources for engagement in programs towards eliminating FOOTBALL POVERTY.

Kevin Makova is a teacher, soccer coach, lifelong environmentalist and advocate for #EqualityInSoccerKe