RALLY ICON REMEMBERED
Impressions have never been an appreciated art in the history of human culture because of the time honoured maxim that they sometimes mislead. Yet for so long, the Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) has adorned them like badges of national honour. Branded as one of the few successful national sports, it is a double-edged compliment that fans have had to endure the sweet and bitter tales of Kenya volleyball. The chasm between women and men volleyball makes an awful reading; while the men have adorned the underachievement label for so long, the women have sustained good performance that creates the impression of a sport on a glide.
Trying to understand the chasm between the two is to take a peek into the administrative ineptitude, corruption, subterfuge and acts of terror that sports administrators have visited on Kenyan sports, and which can make a perfect study for any scholar's thesis.
Bluntly put, the development of men volleyball has been sacrificed at the altar of condescending zeal and single mindedness of successive administrators at KVF, whose singular mission is opting for short cuts when dealing with the complex matters of volleyball development. It is not so often that one reads anything about men volleyball in the Kenyan media. Similarly while everything about the women
. national team and clubs is in public domain, little is known about the men and their forays in international, or even local, championships.
"It's only laymen who say women volleyball is more developed than men's," says Dan Wanyama, the secretary general of the national governing body, KVF, denying suggestions that it was the federation's deliberate policy to favour women.
When Waithaka Kioni took over the reigns of the federation after the recent elections his first assignment was to hire a foreign coach for the national women team. Not that it was a bad thing, but apart from Sedatoshi Sugawara being hired to prepare the women for the 2006 World Championships, it was startling that KVF not only failed to extend similar succour to the men, but Kioni failed to layout a programme for action to reinvigorate the dearth of
   men volleyball.              .
Volleyball's unfair system germinates partly from the federation's leadership that has for ages promoted the philosophy of conditional love. Teams are only recognised and appreciated at the moment of glory, and being yanked as soon as signs of poor performance emerge.
Women have proved that these favours are not in vain. They have won virtually all continental titles in the last decade, and their reign at the top of African volleyball is assumed as the natural order of things.
That the national and KCB women teams are the current continental champions tells the women tale succinctly. Whereas it is easy to associate Mukumu and Lugulu Girls' Schools with a long established pedigree, the same cannot be said of the boys.'
Buoyed by the women's achievements, KVF has always claimed credit for the ladies' performance and promoted it as the federation's flagship. Nature has also given the ladies an advantage, their physiques are the pillars from which coaches have constructed strong, attacking teams, which have spiked many an opponent into eternal submission. It is on altar this physical weapon that Kenya women have scaled the heights of African volleyball.
What the women from North Africa miss out on the physique, they have filled it up with class and tact, and provide the stiffest challenge to Kenya's domination. And while Kenyan women pioneered the sport in Africa, the northerners, which are mostly Islamic, were bogged down by cultural and historical values that have shackled women from active participation in social life.
The Kenyan ladies have won virtually all continental titles in the last decade;­they have Africa in the last three Olympics and a host of world championships. KCB's recent triumph in the women club competition in Mauritius was their first, although it is part of the rich tradition established by Telkom in the 1990s and cemented by Kenya Pipeline in this decade.
Using women volleyball to showcase their "administrative achievements" has
. been an entrenched element of successive KVF regimes.
But, men volleyball is ignored, as much women volleyball is played in
Kakamega, Bungoma, Kitale, Nakuru or even in Mombasa as the amount of ice hockey played throughout Kenya. The women league is an eight-team mundane affair and beyond KCB, Telkom and Kenya Pipeline, there is no other women club worth as much as a mention. That the national team has never won a single set in any of the matches they have played in either the Olympic Games or the world championships muddies the dirty waters further.
According to Wanyama, KVF suffers from pecuniary embarrassments, like other sports bodies. In spite of these women achievements, volleyball is yet to take significant root in Kenya, the league matches are as free as sunshine and the well being of all clubs is dependant on the goodwill of the sponsoring institutions. The only sour-ces of funding at the federation disposal are grants from the government, National Olympic Committee and the global governing body, FIVB, all of which, as Wanyama says, finance specific projects and not sustainable for long term programmes.
According to Wanyama financial problems are at the heart of the current divide between the women and men. "You'l ave noticed that most of women's tournaments have been hosted here, unlike men's," he explains. This has not only been advantageous but easier for the women teams. Advantageous because plating,at home has guaranteed them victory, and easier because logistics for participating in a tournament hosted at home are much easier than say, when one has to travel abroad. "It's these victories that have propelled the women to the top ranks, both in popularity and institutional goodwill that is crucial in securing sponsorship."
It is a long since Kenya hosted a major tournament for men. Wanyama, himself a former player, does not remember but insists that regular international competitions like the recent Malta Guinness-sponsored Four Nations tournament, which Kenya won, have given women leverage over men.
"The fact that they always played here and won has created a strong bond with the public and with it, the ensuing goodwill, which has enabled women volleyball to develop its own life," Wanyama explains. To correct the anomaly, Wanyama told Sports Monthly in an interview that KVF will be putting up a bid to host the 2007 Africa Men Club Championship, "to reinvigorate the men sport and also give them a launching pad to comp~te at the same level as the women."
Similarly, KVF has identified 16 regional centres countrywide as .part of its youth development programme initiative. The centres will be operational three times a year and they will provide camping facilities to those wishing to develop a career in volleyball. The directors, cqaches and
other support staff have been identified ready to roll out the programme in December. The centres are Lugulu Girls and Malava Boys in Western Province, Kisumu Girls and Agoro Sare (Nyanza), Tetu Girls and Kiaganja School (Central), .. Kigumeri Girls and Meru Boys (Eastern), Pangani Girls and Eastleigh School (Nairobi), Shimoa Hills and Changamwe
School (Coast), Paul Boit and Itigo Schools (Rift Valley). So far no centre has identified in North Eastern province. The purpose of the centres is to impart volleyball basics to those willing. to develop the sport as a career. Coaches have already been trained and dispatched to the centres.
Only that one hopes these centres will not degenerate into arenas where girls' centres will be more facilitated than . those of the boys. "We are determined to be competitive locally and internationally and these centres will offer us that opportunity," Wanyama says.