Educate Kenyans and their sportsmen on doping.

A marathon has no half –times, no time outs and no substitutes. It must be must be the only true sport! Kenyan athletes have conquered the world by easily setting and breaking world records when it comes to long distance races. A combination of hard work, talent, mursik and the benefit of high altitude have favoured our athletes to win the races. We have now a number of high altitude training camp in Iten where athletes from all over the world train. Sadly, we have started reading about involvement by our athletes in this ‘’sports vice’’ called doping the other day.

 Doping did not start yesterday; it has been with us since the days of ancient Greece. Perhaps what has changed only is the level of sophistication as noted by Matthew Hard his paper titled Caught in the net: Athletes’ Rights and the World Anti-doping Agency. Where he states that ‘’...the evolution of doping substances and techniques has been tremendous. What began as “cocktails” comprised of heroin, cocaine, alcohol, and nitroglycerin, has evolved to designer steroids, gene therapy, and sophisticated masking techniques. The rise of doping coincided with pharmaceutical developments following the Second World War.52 Athletes soon discovered the physical benefits of substances originally intended for restorative medical purposes, such as human growth hormone (“HGH,” used to treat patients with deficient pituitary glands and lacking growth hormone) and erythropoetin (“EPO,” used to treat kidney disease and anaemia). Athletes weighed the potential impact a substance may have had on health against the impact it would have had on performance and made a calculated decision.’’

Though doping is as old the sports it is associated with, we remain ignorant about it as a nation. To begin with, most of our sports men and women do not even know what they are entitled to when they sign contracts with different clubs they play for or their sponsors. They always end up getting a raw deal. As a country we also do not care much about our sports heroes. A combination of these factors becomes a toxic mix when doping is thrown in. The implications of doping are far reaching. We have witnessed our athletes suffer the ban silently, forgotten. A red card in most sports is devastating enough for any sports man or woman. Being banned from any competition for two years because of doping for any sportsman or woman is a death sentence. It gets worse due to being branded a cheat especially if the sportsman or woman had no knowledge of what she ingested or was injected with. Things get even more difficult where millions of money is lost in sponsorship and endorsement deals. Most of the sponsors do not want to associate with such sportsmen or women.

Unfortunately, their agents, coaches or doctors who might have lured them to ingest or inject banned substances are let off the hook. This cannot be ruled our especially with the huge money the races attract nowadays. Yet the ministry of sports and the various sports federations who are supposed to work together to educate Kenyans about doping and its implications in sports are only interested in making a quick buck at the expense of the sportsmen and women. To date no robust attempts have been made especially by the concerned ministry to address this issue apart from forming a task force which came up with a report whose veracity has already been questioned in several forums. However, the Anti-doping task Force led by Prof Moni Wekesa is a good starting step in the right direction. Notably the bill it proposed to deal with doping is something I hope all the parties concerned will fine tune and ensure it is enacted into law soonest for the benefit of our sports  and the country at large.

TRAGEDY OF THE KENYAN NARRATIVE.

                     

We have been told on numerous occasions that we need a new Kenyan narrative. I agree. It is not in doubt that we need a new Kenyan story. What is in doubt is the sincerity of the different speakers who have told us this. Their candidness is in doubt because of the timing and their reasons for the call for a new story. The call is mostly made when we are undergoing a national crisis and the nation is perceived as divided between the tribes of the protagonists. The people calling for a narrative are usually supporting either of the two sides. The speakers never tell us what the old story is all about and why we need to discard it or edit it. The speakers also have never told us who is supposed to tell this narrative. The net effect then is that a very legitimate concern is left unaddressed and treated as useless political rhetoric.

 The argument has always been that we have heard the same false story as a nation for far too long. A false tale reminding us that we are one nation of peace, love and unity where we have equal opportunities. A false tale that diagnoses ethnicity as the disease that is killing us when in fact it is the diagnosis itself that is the disease. What is the true Kenyan story then? Who needs to tell it? Do we need a new story? These are simple questions and there is the risk of oversimplification when answering them in an article like this.

We had a Kenyan story before the colonialists arrived. They found us with our story and since they did not understand it, they recreated it and used it to subjugate us and see us through their colonial prejudices. Later when they went away, our forefathers forgot to tell us our story and told us what the colonialists had forced down our throats. We believed our forefathers and with the excitement because of the new found independence we were not vigilant enough to reread it and demand for our authentic story.

The story we have now is being narrated by bigoted politicians not wananchi.They have simply rewritten the fake story our forefathers told us.The plot and characters have changed and new themes included with the earlier ones being amplified and some deleted. The politicians tell the story depending on the prevailing political climate of the day. What we have is not even a story but ramblings which should excite the silly only.What we have is a tale of ‘’ us’’ versus ‘’them’’ when a story should only have us.We have ‘’us’’ and ‘’them’’ yet the story does not tell us who ‘’them’’ and ‘’us’’ are. The tragedy is that we have all swallowed the bait because we are a servile, unquestioning people like the characters in the fake story we are told. More tragic is that we are aware that the story is false and we need a new true story but we are not willing to write the new story.

However, after we get the true new story we must also ask if the audience will be ready to listen.We are need of a compelling story if we want the audience to listen. Compelling means all of us can share in its joy and sadness and can see ourselves in the story.Compelling because it connects with our emotions as a nation.Compelling because we can see our values in the story.Compelling because it is an authentic story that binds as even as it recognise our differences.Compelling because we know the story will be retold to our children without changing the plot and the themes to suit the story teller of the time.

 

                               Let us all Care for the Disabled in the Society.     

   This is what Justice David Majanja said in his judgment in the case of Paul AnupPkiach &Another versus Attorney General & Another (2012) eKLR: ’’The current physical structure of the Milimani Law courts is such that it is a hindrance to justice seekers owing to the physical barriers that make it a herculean task for persons with disabilities to access the courts. Some of the problems recognized are as follows; Access to the Entry Lobby of the Building is restrictive to people with wheel chairs since there is a step to the reception area. The witness boxes in various courts are raised by a platform of 200mm from the general floor which makes it difficult for the physically challenged particularly those on wheel chairs to access the stand. The parking bays are set at a lower level to the general ground which poses a challenge to move to the raised ground over the concrete kerb stone. Some of the entrances to the court rooms are not wide enough for wheel chair.’’ I do not know whether the situation at Milimani law courts has now been rectified. However, what I know is that what the judge said is reflected in various court buildings across the country.

It is ironical that the judiciary is in the forefront in violating the rights of the disabled.However, the judiciary need not worry as it has the company of fellow violators across the society. We have seen many county governments spent billions to buy ambulances for hospitals in their counties. Anyone will agree that is a good thing. Yet a visit to these hospitals will tell you that they cannot be accessed by someone on a wheel chair or blind because of the design of the building and lack of signage in Braille. I can confidently say all Public service vehicles cannot be accessed by the disabled in society yet the relevant stakeholders like the Matatu Owners association are only concerned about pimping their matatus and fussing over the cashless payment system.

We celebrate the innovation of mobile money transfer services but we do not care or ask why there are no subsidized screen readers for the blind. Yet we know that the service providers will not make losses because they have invested in these subsidized screen readers. The disabled are still unable to access the ATM s of many banks across the country even as the banks pride themselves in being the best.

As we prepare for the digital migration we have witnessed concerned television station fight to protect their investments worth of billions. They have every right to do so. However, it should not be forgotten that apart from the national broadcaster, only one of the stations has sign language interpretation during newscast and the airing of programmes of national importance.

Making profit should not be our only business. We should stop the avarice and care about the vulnerable amongst us. It is not enough to say we have employed the disabled in our companies and the different government ministries. It is not enough for the government to say thirty percent of government contracts are for the disabled. Just like it is useless for most companies and the government to call themselves equal opportunity employers when their websites cannot be accessed by blind people. Let us all play our part.

                                    STOP THESE IRRESPONSIBLE GUN OWNERS.

The easier access to licensed guns by the rich and influential means that the misuse of guns among Kenyans who own firearms is now frequent. Stories of politicians or celebrities who draw their guns in public at the slightest provocation are a constant feature in our news now, what our reporters call ‘’gun drama’’. Recently I learnt that we have a Gun Owners Association. The Association was complaining about the rising levels of guns misuse by its members.What is fascinating is that all the actors in the gun drama have been men. I do not know the reason for the increasing love for guns by Kenyan men and whether it is a good or a bad thing.





Naturally every man has a duty to protect his family or loved ones.Thus, depending on where a man is placed on the social stratum, he will either choose a gun, spear or knife for protection. Those high up on the ladder go for the guns. One would therefore imagine that a gun should be used to protect oneself from imminent danger, when it is absolutely necessary. Since guns are supposed to protect the gun owners and others from harm, it is expected that they will have an added level of responsibility and alertness at all times and be humble. Just like we are told that those who are trained in the martial arts are calm, disciplined men and women who do not throw kicks anywhere, anytime and at anyone. But this is not what is happening in Kenya today. It is almost as if we are competing to show off who has a gun and how fast he can pull the trigger. There are many explanations for this but I think the main reason is selfishness by the attention –seeking gun owners.

This has been aptly captured by Tom Matlackin his article  Men and Guns: An Affinity for Steel (http://www.goodmenproject.com )when he says ‘’Over emphasis on self-protection insidiously turns into self-projection. Guns are sometimes wielded by the untrained to make a statement about personal power or invulnerability—and when I say untrained, I mean untrained in moral values—and this can lead to inappropriate use of them. We see the phenomenon in MMA as well. Martial arts, which was also designed as a set of self- and others’-protection skills, has become more about proving personal toughness or manliness—or even womanliness. But the problem is not the gun or the martial arts skills, the problem is values. 

Perhaps growing up being fed on violence is another explanation as to why there is more aggression and the need to draw a gun easily and shoot without flinching. We have seen so much violence on television and the internet and we now have to practice what we have been fed on. We are products of a violent society. There is need therefore need to regulate what our young children watch and access on the internet. 

We also need to bring up our young men to be less angry at themselves and at the society at all times. Frustrated and angry, these young men can do damage within a minimal amount of time with more serious and lethal firepower. We should teach them to lose the egos and walk away from trouble, fighting only as the last resort.Humility, will not make them lesser men, they must be told. Otherwise they will grow up into emasculated men we are now reading about in the newspapers who will draw guns because a hapless matatu tout flipped the bird at them. The new culture of self-promotion and winning every ‘’fight’’ is what is driving our men to the kind of behavior we are witnessing. This will change if we bring up our boys up to be men of valor without necessarily being aggressive.