allAfrica.com: Kenya: Use Today's Games to Foster National Healing (Page 1 of 2)

Since nothing brings people together more than sports, today we should begin the national healing process as Kenyans.

We are a soccer crazy nation. But since our domestic league plays in fits and jerks, and generates more interest off the field like management feuds and theft of funds, many of us have been forced to seek solace in the passionate UK Premier League.

Such is the mania provoked by the game over which, regrettably, a large chunk of this week's working hours will be lost in celebrations, depression, anger, animosities and rehashing of events around the two key events today.

The bad thing about the Premier League is its intrusiveness. Right to the village, few homes are unaffected by the craze of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Whether you care for it or not, the hullabaloo generated around games involving the Big Four comes to you either from mad neighbours' yells, a sulky partner mourning a loss or a noisy workmate regurgitating details of who scored when, how or missed which opportunity.

The infatuation transcends the political divide. Former MP, Mr Joseph Kamotho, has for instance, confessed he is an ardent Man U fan.

His team will play Liverpool today and the rejected former Mathioya MP will most likely find time for the game.

In the spirit of reconciliation, he should invite the guy who beat him in the polls, Mr Clement Muchiri, irrespective of the latter's team preference for shared viewing.

Muchiri was a pilot, a category normally linked to elite types who may find football scruffy and plebeian for their liking. They may prefer golfing, snorkelling, water boarding or bird watching.

Sometimes, being airborne for so long might create tastes for unlicensed games of the kind allegedly occupying ex-pilot and former Saboti MP, Mr Davis Nakitare's post-Parliament career.

But football is broad and classy enough even for the highfliers. Even former Baringo Central MP, Mr Gideon Moi, takes time off polo to watch Sunderland footballing prospects. His favourite in the Premier League may be unknown but an intelligent guess would place his sympathies with Chelsea.

The blues happens to be the preference of armchair football fans who may not have heard of Jose Mourinho before he arrived at Stamford Bridge.

Like Kamotho, Prof George Saitoti, is likely to love Man U. The two were, after all, political soulmates for many years. But the Internal Security minister who lists playing football as his hobby, would probably arrive at a decision on which team to support on a methodical, scientifically calculated means.

He would perhaps weigh the average scores of each team, the frequency and margin of victory in each game and the regularity of winning trophies. All that rounded, Man U would really be his choice.

You, however, guess the Kajiado North MP has lots of respect for Arsene Wenger. The Arsenal manager whose team plays Chelsea later today, maintains a sagely mien that would be naturally attractive to a taciturn character like Saitoti.

To be with the people

The Frenchman conducts himself with aristocratic airs that are so anachronistic to your average local Arsenal fan. The latter tend to be generally boisterous and gang-ho and always full of belief of their team's potency even when successive years yield hard evidence of a team lost in grandiose panache and almost-there success.

But the gunners are really the mass movement team. It is like a popular trade union that you join not so much because you believe in its 'raison deter' of taking care of your employment needs but because, well, everyone else happens to be in.

Over the years, attracted by the glitz of its game style and the presence of African and black players, the club has generated a following that would make ODM green with envy. It is arguably the socialist team. You would, therefore, expect Moses ole Sekuda to support Arsenal if only, to be with the people.

During campaigns, the man edged out by Saitoti in last year's polls, portrayed himself as a 'man of the people'. Where his nemesis was described as aloof and distant, the cleric centred his campaign on a common-man touch and approach to issues.

Today, therefore, and assuming the loser didn't get lost immediately back in the US, would be a good day for the protagonists and their supporters to bury the hatchet and share a game on TV in Ngong Town.

The real toast of new-founded unity should, however, be between the so-called two principals - President Kibaki and Raila Odinga. In terms of sports, the two are really a complementary antithesis. The former, by proven character, eschews populism.

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