Kenya: Does the Average Gor Fan Still Live in Stone Age?

21 May 2011

opinion

Nairobi — Thanks to television and corporate money, football is now big business.

In other parts of the world, the industry is highly professionalised. Everybody involved in it – the player, the club official or the fan – is expected to play by the rules set by a regulator.

Well, the player still has to do his best to impress with his skills on the ball on the pitch. And the fan is still allowed to show his love and passion for the game with tribal singing and dancing on the terraces.

But they also understand that the modern game has placed extra demands on them.

Other members of society sustain the footballer’s livelihood or indulge the fan’s cheering habit by building stadia, sponsoring the club or advertising on TV.

They expect the player and the fan to reciprocate by acting as role models for the children, obeying the law, respecting national values, presenting a good image of their club, and respecting private and public property.

This doesn’t sound like asking too much from any average adult of sound mind. It is actually the least he can do.

Kenya is playing catch-up in the development of the modern game. But there are a few bright spots here and there.

A multi-million-shilling sponsorship deal with the South African pay TV giant Supersport means that millions of people around the world can now follow matches of the Kenyan soccer premier league.

Clubs like Mathare United and Sofapaka have gone out of their way to incorporate community service and charity into their programmes.

Unfortunately, the civilisation of the modern game appears to have left some fans of Gor Mahia, one of the oldest and the most successful clubs in Kenya, behind.

The average Gor Mahia fan is still known more for his capacity to destroy private and public property than his positive contribution to the community.

For the umpteenth time, the ugly events of last Wednesday night brought out the worst side of the Gor Mahia fan.

It was the conduct of people living in the Stone Age, literally.

But how destroying property at the Nyayo Stadium, smashing the windscreens of the opposing club’s team bus and harassing motorists on Uhuru Highway to protest an unpopular referee decision gives justice to your club escapes me.

When these people chant their unbwogable slogan, do they probably mean to say they are unchanged by the modern game?

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