As the 2024 Olympic Games draw to a close in Paris, I join my fel­low Kenyans in pass­ing hearty con­grat­u­la­tions to Kenya’s Beat­rice Che­bet who won gold in both the 10,000m and 5,000m. Her spec­tac­u­lar per­for­mance stands in stark con­trast to Kenya’s over­all dis­ap­point­ing per­for­mance this year. As a vet­er­an sports admin­is­tra­tor who rose from grass­roots roles to exec­u­tive posi­tions, includ­ing serv­ing as the CEO of the suc­cess­ful 2007 World Cross Coun­try Cham­pi­onships in Mom­basa, I’ve observed our nation’s seem­ing­ly declin­ing sport­ing prowess with great concern.

Since Naf­tali Temu’s ground­break­ing gold in the 1968 Mex­i­co Olympics, Kenya has amassed more than 35 Olympic gold medals, estab­lish­ing a lega­cy of ath­let­ic excel­lence. Yet, our per­for­mance has notice­ably waned since 2012, point­ing to sys­temic issues that need urgent atten­tion. Kenyans fond­ly remem­ber the days when we dom­i­nat­ed events like the 3,000 metres steeple­chase so much so that we didn’t lose for decades. Icon­ic ath­letes like Ezekiel Kem­boi who just missed a medal in Paris Olympics occu­pied our col­lec­tive nation­al psy­che. Indeed, at every edi­tion of what­ev­er com­pe­ti­tion, Kenya seemed to mint new cham­pi­ons even before old­er com­pa­tri­ots could fade away.

So what is respon­si­ble for our tum­bling for­tunes? For starters, man­age­ment, both at the nation­al lev­el and of respec­tive athletes.

The man­age­ment of our ath­letes appears to lack strate­gic focus on long-term devel­op­ment, lead­ing to burnout and under­per­for­mance when it mat­ters most. Ath­letes are fre­quent­ly overex­tend­ed by the sheer num­ber of races orga­nized by their man­agers in the lead-up to major com­pe­ti­tions, dimin­ish­ing their peak per­for­mance capa­bil­i­ties. This issue is fur­ther com­pound­ed by insuf­fi­cient invest­ment in sports infra­struc­ture, par­tic­u­lar­ly in dis­ci­plines out­side our tra­di­tion­al strong­hold of long-dis­tance running.

We’re under­uti­liz­ing diverse tal­ents, such as the archery skills of the Maa­sai or the aquat­ic abil­i­ties of our coastal com­mu­ni­ties. The decline in com­mu­ni­ty sports facil­i­ties, such as those in Muthur­wa and Makon­geni, which pre­vi­ous­ly served as nurs­eries for tal­ent like box­ing, high­lights a broad­er issue of under­in­vest­ment in grass­roots sports devel­op­ment. Each of the country’s 47 Coun­ties must invest in elab­o­rate com­mu­ni­ty sport­ing facil­i­ties that will incu­bate our country’s immea­sur­able tal­ent. This respon­si­bil­i­ty lies in the hands of the nation­al and coun­ty gov­ern­ments. They must all rise to the occa­sion and stop fin­ger pointing.

I there­fore believe that the new­ly-appoint­ed Sports Cab­i­net Sec­re­tary, Kipchum­ba Murkomen, has a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to lift Kenya’s sports back to its glo­ry days. In order for this to hap­pen, he should spear­head an ambi­tious nation­al Mar­shall Plan that will among oth­er things, involve holis­tic ath­lete devel­op­ment pro­grams,  invest­ment in state-of-the-art facil­i­ties that cater to a wider range of dis­ci­plines beyond our tra­di­tion­al fortes, and the revamp­ing old facil­i­ties and build­ing that have since fall­en into disuse.

The new roadmap would also involve a robust, inclu­sive scout­ing sys­tem that reach­es deep into schools and local com­mu­ni­ties. This sys­tem would tap into the diverse cul­tur­al skills our coun­try har­bors, ensur­ing no poten­tial tal­ent goes unno­ticed. Col­lab­o­ra­tion between the gov­ern­ment, pri­vate sec­tor stake­hold­ers, and sports orga­ni­za­tions will also be cru­cial in pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary fund­ing and cre­at­ing a pol­i­cy frame­work that sup­ports these initiatives.

Fur­ther, it should con­cern us that an increas­ing num­ber of Kenyan-born ath­letes are win­ning choice medals for oth­er coun­tries, while Kenya’s medal count dimin­ish­es. While we can­not begrudge these great ath­letes for pur­su­ing bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties in oth­er coun­tries, the trend should be a wake-up call. It is indeed the clear­est sign that our sys­tem has failed these high­ly-tal­ent­ed Kenyans, forc­ing them to look elsewhere.

As we stand at this cross­roads, we must remem­ber that noth­ing what­so­ev­er has ever matched the pow­er of ath­let­ics to bring us togeth­er as a nation. Not even the most pop­u­lar politi­cian evokes the sense of pride that comes when our ath­letes, resplen­dent in our nation­al col­ors take their place in the hal­lowed podi­ums and the sound of the Kenyan nation­al anthem rever­ber­ates across the world. We must nev­er lose that, ever. Think green, act green!