ATHLETICS KENYA NEEDS TO ACT.

It's evident that Kenya is struggling at the Olympics despite winning gold and silver in the 5,000 metres race and a bronze in 800 metres and some are asking why the dismal performance.

First and foremost, we have the same chairperson at the Athletics Kenya since 2015 who also doubles up as the Sports Fund chairperson, this brings Conflict of Interest and this promotes looting of money meant for athletes. Their only concern is whether Eliud Kipchoge wins.

I remember how we used to celebrate the likes of Ezekiel Kemboi, David Rudisha and Asbel Kiprop win. These were self trained athletes who worked hard to reach the top level.

Kenya has never been a powerhouse in athletics but rather we have been lucky with talents. This has made the government sit back and enjoy the success of the talented ones. Every athlete is now training where our athletes used to train and this has made us equal to other nations.

 Instead of investing in infrastructures that will help in boosting existing talents, we are only concerned about talents and we forget that good investment beats talents.

Another thing is that the monopoly we used to enjoy in middle and long distance races is now coming to an end. This is because other countries have already designed strategies that make them a real threat to us. We need to start diversifying our sport. 

We can invest in gymnastics, kayaking , throwing javelin and even get men from Western Kenya to practice playing short put.

There are no proper training facilities in Kenya as money meant for that probably enda up in people's pockets. We don't even have stipends for the upcoming athletes to motivate them and that's why some end up switching nationality to where they feel appreciated most.

Additionally, the society treats sports and arts as a pass time thing and we've failed to invest in the sector. We should treat the sport as something that can raise our profile and also something that can generate income.

Another problem is the ethnicization of the sport which left other talents from other communities out. Delegates from the AK administration seem to be working backwards.

Gatekeepers, corruption and nepotism is also something that needs to be addressed before the kingdom falls. For example, if you go to places like Eldoret you will see many young men and women training hard but only a few of them are "selected" to represent the couch and after bribing the scouts.

The moment we started believing that talent is everything, we lost it. We need to understand that athletics is an individual sport and not team work, investing in talented individuals which might be fruitful later.

Lastly, other country are becoming stronger compared to the past hence the challenge for medals has become more tough. We need to restrategize as a country before we experience a massive downfall.

We need to stop celebrating individual brilliance of our athletes and invest in them. Let's not tax their award money but instead give them permanent jobs to keep them motivated.