Oral East AfricaWhen football comes knocking, the surge of fanatical crowds follow. Their numbers will dwarf Matatu Launches or the live concerts that are pulling crowds and moving money to entertainment.
The African Nations Championship (Chan) may gift Kenya with a burst of glory, a new champion and a chance for communal glory that could pull Kenya to a collective. Six out of ten Kenyans place their bets on football, which is huge for a country that sends Kes100 billion annually on gambling. No surpise that kenya has sold out the opening match tickets as the four week football break presents an escape from the tough economy.
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Football offers a chance for distraction of Kenya’s restive youth following the marking of the June 25 anniversary that was again mired in maiming, death and bloodshed.
looking for the people’s champion
It also presents a windfall with direct monetary gains for the government and the common people who are expected to play hosts to Africans from across the continent.
President William Ruto is trying to woo the expected over two thousand football fans and officials who are expected to shuttle between Kenya Uganda and Tanzaniafor Chan football matches that there are Wildebeests to see as well.
This strategy of linking Chan matches to destinations like Maasai Mara or Diani Beach could drive revenue for hotels, restaurants, transport services, and artisans.
The tournament on home soil may also open up local talent to the football mainstream, something the East Africans have not quite cracked in the multibillion-dollar market yet.
Kenya’s football has always been vibrant at school levels, community clubs and corporate team buildings. But save for a few gems who have made it to the top of the game like Denis Oliech, Macdonald Mariga and Victor Wanyama the pipeline to global football has not been robust.
At the capital in Nairobi, Mathare Youth Sports Association led in the exposure of local talent to international football and helped establish the system that has lifted scores of Kenyans from the poor Eastland’s background to foreign clubs in Europe and the Middle East. Lately Safaricom has led in rural focused talent searches called Chapa Dimba that have spotted a few new names.
If a few local talents get to shine from this tournament to the big leagues, they could build new narratives of what is possible for young people across the country, and for betting and alcohol branding.
Filling the vacuum left by the west
Football is also presenting the fastest way to deliver a visible political project to dwarf his predecessors white elephant Standard Gauge Railway and Thika Superhighway. Like them he has turned to China to build him a monument of a stadium, quickly.
China Road and Bridge Corporation, have come in to deliver the 60,000 seater Talanta stadium even as the government seeks funding from a public bond underwritten by Treasury disbursements made to the Sports, Arts and Social DevelÂopment Fund (SASDF)
This is predicated on gaming and betting revenues that should be used to discourage the vice. This should worry the government that is increasingly relying on this gamble.
Too many young people are abandoning productive work for gambling while middle-aged men are spending all their money betting, ratcheting up addiction, domestic violence and breaking families. According to a Geopol study on betting, 79 percent of Kenyans had tried their luck gambling or betting this year.
Will the size of the edifice mirror the scar.
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