Today I feel inspired. The decline of Mathare United got me thinking; the dwindling fortunes of Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and generally the bleak future of football as a key driver of social and economic change in Kenya can cause depression. Football in Kenya in the last decade or so has navigated very stormy waters; we have witnessed some of the very best systems disappear to complete oblivion because of the tough economic climate of our football. The fall of Thika United pains more because of the youth project that the club came to be known for.The very Thika United that gave us Stephen Ocholla, Francis Kahata, Clifton Miheso, Dennis Odhiambo, David Okello and more. Today, sadly it is no more, while some of these players have gone on to shine immensely. What of Chemelil Sugar, West Kenya FC, Western Stima and more? It is a sad state.Anyway, back to Mathare United. This past weekend the team gave away their second game due to financial challenges and the situation isn’t bound to get any better. It is a given, Mathare United will drop down to the second tier. I have to confess, as a young boy growing up, I never imagined Mathare United could drop to the current lows. Mathare United dish out another walkoverClose to invincibility In 1998, as a ball-boy, I was there as Mathare United sunk Eldoret KCC to win the Moi Golden Cup, kicking off a period of rapid growth. Thinking of this along the big push theory, I’d say this was the marker of Mathare United’s development. It was a statement of MYSA’s impact, and opened doors that moved Mathare United close to invincibility. Mathare United was just the tip of the larger foundational investment that had been put in through MYSA, once acclaimed the best example of community development. Mathare United had a bank of players ready to join the team and fighting to. Taking a picture next to the Mathare United bus was a dream come true for some of us. When you got the chance to be a ball-boy you’d gloat for years. We weren’t paid anything; it was just a proud moment, and we were okay with that.Today Mathare United is in dire straits and the overriding call is on the MYSA alumni to come to the aid of our great club, recent article on the local dailies articulated the same well. This is a good call but how sustainable is it? The simple answer is, it isn’t. However, it can be an option, a stopgap solution, but before then, we have to imbibe in history, to see where MYSA failed first and get lessons from the same. Community developmentMYSA was the perfect example of how growth can be driven through community development. Zonal organizations, teams and groups were the spine of MYSA and all run well, at least at face value. The association grew from offering just football and diversified to enhancing literacy levels, environmental clean ups, community health and entertainment and more.Things blew, for the better, and boom; Mathare United was born and rose to play in the Kenyan Premier League. Mathare Youth would follow later, though that was a pointer to the poor strategy at MYSA, and a clear indication the powers that be were struggling to cope with the overflow coming from the ballooning junior teams and football programs.It would be noted in good time and Mathare Youth was swiftly withdrawn from the scene. However, the challenges remained and this association that once enjoyed an overflow of partners found itself relying on grants, which have over time proven unsustainable.Earlier in the last decade MYSA was also rocked with reports of a sex scandal as well as financial impropriety. These did little to save them from the dwindling fortunes. The disappearing projects in the face of financial difficulties wound up even faster that Bob Munro’s receding hairline. Departure from historyA dark future was staring and for Mathare United, a team that took pride in only enrolling graduates from the MYSA setup, the danger sign was up when they even started signing non-Kenyan players. Ugandan Hussein Zzinda was one such beneficiary.Today, the giant that was MYSA is dying. The giant that was born in 1987 is struggling to breath and her baby, Mathare United is stuck at the breast, trying to suckle her last, clutching, and drawing the giant’s remaining energy even faster. More and more people are calling on the MYSA alumni to save the dying giant and her baby, but just how, and for how long?It is okay to appeal to the MYSA alumni for support but the alumni will need more guarantees than just the emotional appeal of having been at MYSA in the earlier years. For an association that has had cases of financial impropriety, a better framework to handle finances and an impenetrable, transparent policy on dealing with corruption at the association would be a good start.Mathare United; here is an idea. 1k per annum per fan /alumni like me. https://t.co/9RFY1EKMIa— Bernard Gachiu (@BERNARDg32) April 23, 2022 If MYSA can crack that and use the membership it claims to have (the MYSA website indicates 30K+), then this can be a good stop-gap. For example, if 2000 of 30000 members can be convinced to commit 1000 shillings per month, the association can be banking Kshs 2 Million per month. With the volume of operations at MYSA, this is a drop in the ocean, but can be a good starting point, at least to keep the club running.Better approachThe more sustainable approach would be going back to what lifted MYSA to the profile which saw the association win the UNEP Global award for environmental innovation as well as get nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. With the developing countries calling more and more on the big emitters to commit more funding for climate justice, no sports-based association in Kenya today is better placed than MYSA to join this advocacy and seek this funding to strategize better. Geographically, MYSA is well placed and in terms of networks and a legacy for sustainable development, Bob Munro has been there. At COP 26, in Glasgow more and more superpowers committed to climate funding and with COP 27 coming to Africa, surely MYSA can easily get proposals aligned with these international conventions on climate change to not only breathe life into the falling giant but go back to environmental protection and gender advocacy just like the good old MYSA we knew.Kayci Odhiambo: From humble beginnings in Makadara to impressing at Ingwe
