For school games, just like Machiavelli, the end justifies the means

It’s a no-brainer that the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) has been the main feeder for national teams and top clubs for decades.

In a country that lacks proper sports development structures at the federation level, the Ministry of Education (MoE) and KSSSA have ensured that Kenya doesn’t run out of talented athletes.

Secondary schools have been the country’s talent incubators where most of Kenya’s sports stars are identified, nurtured and molded into world beaters.

A scrutiny of any national team reveals that athletes’ beginnings often trace back to secondary school.

It is at these institutions that they honed their skills and also had first-hand experience of competing for top honours.

Winning, losing and above all, sportsmanship has been the name of the game, where demands for fair play, respect and ethical behaviour have been the guiding principles.

However, the recent happenings in Term Two games threatened not just the credibility of these co-curricular activities, but also their intended purpose.

The integrity of Kenya’s education system is also at stake because the main objective of co-curricular activities is to complement learning by helping students develop skills and knowledge out of the classroom.

While the games are meant to empower students, some self-centered school principals and teachers have forgotten that the activities are for learners and made it all about them.

And as the Swahili saying goes ‘fahali wawili wakipigana nyasi ndio huumia’ innocent students have been at the receiving end of these shenanigans.

Some have been denied a chance to showcase their talents after their school teams were slapped with bans for allegedly breaching the rules. They are victims of circumstances, suffering at the hands of their dishonest teachers.

The games have become fodder for supremacy battles, malice, manipulation and forgery of crucial government documents such as birth certificates. It has now become a “win at all costs” affair. 

Before and during the school sports season, every day is a busy day for some teachers and coaches who move around the country on the hunt for evidence to get rid of their opponents through bans or disqualification.

Some of these documents are acquired fraudulently through forgery or are illegally handed over by other institutions that are in possession. 

Most of the appeals in the ongoing Term Two games have been about player eligibility with the appellants producing birth certificates, Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) certificates among other personal documents as evidence to prove that players in question were ineligible to play. Shockingly, it was established that some of these players have multiple birth certificates.

Without verifying the authenticity of these documents and their sources, the respective juries handling some of the disputes used them to make their verdicts.

Some of the birth certificates were issued after the county games, with others being acquired a day before the hearing of the appeal cases.

For instance, the Trans Nzoia County disputed boys’ semi-final match between St Anthony’s Boys High School Kitale and St Joseph’s Boys High School Kitale was a hot topic on social media in the run-up to the just concluded regional games.

Kisumu and Kakamega counties also had their fair share of setbacks.

Whereas other counties resolved their disputes in good time, the juries in the three counties were unable to make timely verdicts hence subjecting students to unnecessary mental stress.

The Trans Nzoia jury convened by county secretary Peter Mulambula ruled that the two sides play in a rematch. The match had ended in the 81st minute after St Joseph’s players refused to play, demanding to be awarded a penalty.

The two schools had to wait for over a week for the jury to rule their case. St Joseph’s had lodged an appeal over ineligibility of two St Anthony’s players.

For St Anthony’s, they hoped that the jury would look into what happened during the match and rule on grounds of abandonment by St Joseph’s. Nonetheless, they focused on an appeal and also blamed the fans for causing the match to end prematurely.   

The county set the precedence last year when they ruled in favour of St Joseph’s, who were leading 2-0 when the match ended in the 87th minute by declining St Anthony’s appeal on grounds that they abandoned the match.

During this year’s Term One games, the KSSSA Trans Nzoia office had punished the St Joseph’s hockey team and St Brigids Kiminini girls’ basketball team for abandoning matches.

However, they shifted goalposts this term despite the referees’ report indicating that St Joseph’s abandoned the match. At Ndura Sports Complex St Anthony’s were leading 3-2.

Dissatisfied with the county jury and supreme jury’s decision to uphold the verdict, St Anthony’s appealed to the Rift Valley Region jury, which cleared St Joseph’s to represent the county because the appeal had been overtaken by time since the regional games were about to begin.

St Joseph’s had beaten St Anthony’s 5-0 in the replayed semis match before edging out Friends School Bwake 1-0 in the final.

Interestingly, the regional jury also ruled that four players; two from St Anthony’s and two from St Joseph’s had been discussed and declared overage and were therefore not eligible to participate in the games.

Their decision was based on the unverified documents that were presented to them as evidence.

One of the players in question, Instine Simiyu Wanjala, would turn up for St Joseph’s during the Rift Valley games a day after the ruling causing an uproar on social media and claims that the ministry had lifted the rule on age limit.

Ministry officials denied having issued such directives. However, the verdict from the regional jury indicated that he had qualified for East Africa games in athletics, which was not St Anthony’s concern and was never raised in the appeal.

St Anthony’s challenged Simiyu’s eligibility on grounds that his birth certificate was registered in 2023, which means that it is not the certificate that was used to register him for KCPE exams, which is the requirement by KSSSA constitution.

In Kisumu, Onjiko High School was banned for three years for fielding ineligible players following a successful appeal by Kisumu Boys.

The ruling by the county supreme jury saw the games replayed from the semi-finals, with Kisumu Day beating Agai Mixed 1-0 to be crowned county champions. Their celebrations were short-lived following another appeal by Kisumu Boys that saw them disqualified after being found guilty of falsifying documents.  

The battle between Kakamega High and Musingu High School threatened to halt the Western Region games after Kakamega moved to court to stop the games until their appeal against Musingu was heard and determined by the county.

This saw a delay in the boys’ games that were marred by countless appeals. The jury first ruled for a rematch, which Kakamega failed to honour saying that they were not informed of the venue.

The supreme jury then disqualified Musingu for falsification of documents, a move they appealed, leading to a rematch, which they won to advance to the regional games.