Why don’t we harvest this soccer euphoria?

There were a few changes in the Rwandan government, the remanding of a Uganda’s former Vice President to Luzira Maximum security prison while in Kenya Prof. Wangari Maathai’s funeral arrangements drew to a close with a final send off at Uhuru Park. However, none of the above seemed to garner as much euphoric attention as the epic battle between the Uganda Cranes and Kenya’s Harambee Stars. The game is part of the last qualifying matches that were played concurrently around the continent in a bid to find the countries that will partake in the 2012 African Cup of Nations tournament. By the time of reading this, the results to this match should be common knowledge to all. Rwanda’s Amavubi was to take on Benin while Burundi was facing Ivory Coast. Our Tanzanian brothers were facing Guinea. I must point out from the onset that East Africa has not quite proved to be a football region on the continent as compared to the Arab north or West Africa. Even Southern Africa with Angola and South Africa have played better soccer than us. The game between Uganda and Kenya was hyped to cardiac levels with some referring to it as the battle for Migingo in reference to the disputed lake Victoria Island that the two countries are fond of squabbling over. More so, Uganda which has created a record of not losing at home since a loss against Rwanda, is on the verge of qualifying for the African Cup of Nations, a tournament they last played in 1978. The Kenyans are the ones standing in Uganda’s path and thousands of them were said to have boarded buses from Nairobi, and Kisumu to cheer up their boys. The fans were to be led by the football loving Prime Minister, Raila Odinga himself. As the Uganda cranes trained for the game, their visitors list included the president, his son, the prime minister and the Kabaka (King) of Buganda. Social media platforms were dominated by talk of an eminent win for Uganda and to some extent the surprise decision to kick out star striker David Obua from the team 24 hours to the game. It is rather unfortunate that Rwanda whose President is not known to miss a home game, has faired poorly in this particular tournament leading to resignations of the coach and FERWAFA boss. However, I have seen Rwandans going crazy when APR is playing against Rayon Sports club. In Kenya, a game between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards is always well attended. Other regional clubs like Burundi’s Vital’O or Tanzania’s Simba FC all have huge fan bases. At the same time, the ‘discovery’ of the English Premier League has seen East Africans worshipping the English game almost like a religion. One observer even argued that Manchester United or Arsenal fans could be having more followers than any single political party in the region. Our radio stations have made football the key topic, with presenters effortlessly throwing in statistics and historical facts on any English or Spanish football team. As I thought about all this football euphoria bordering on fanaticism, I pondered on how this energy can be harvested to make the East African region a much better place. Electricity is harvested from fast moving water while the methane gas below Lake Kivu is soon to be harvested for electricity as well. Why then have we failed to harvest this football love and energy to promote regional integration? It was a shame to hear that Uganda’s football body had booked the Kenyans into a cheap hotel and even went as far as switching off the lights as the Harambee stars had their last training session at the Namboole stadium. Now this is not the kind of brotherliness that the EAC should be built on. It says a lot for us to love our football clubs and even love Arsenal, Manchester or Real Madrid when we cannot show this love to our brothers across our borders. Why should Manchester United have more supporters than our own leaders or the EAC project in general? Why should we be very willing to support our teams and even have our leaders pledging money to the football teams yet we have failed to have an oil pipeline beyond Eldoret? The railway lines that would make life easier in the region are still those laid by the colonialists. I look forward to the day when national or EAC colours are more than Manchester or Arsenal shirts. ssenyonga@gmail.comBlog: www.ssenyonga.wordpress.comTwitter: @ssojo81