Kenya yet to access the full dividend of rare success in sports

The triumphant Kenyan team to the World Athletics Championships in Beijing arrived in the country last Tuesday morning to a tumultuous reception from Kenyans.

The team emerged first overall after scooping 16 medals – seven gold, six silver and three bronze – beating heavy weights like the US, Jamaica and perennial African rivals Ethiopia.

Outstanding performers included Nicholas Bett who won Kenya’s first ever gold in the 400 metres hurdles race, Julius Yego with the third longest javelin throw (92.72 metres), and Asbel Kiprop who won the 1,500 metres race despite having a flu.

Welcome to the Kenya sports brand.

The sporting arena is one prominent area where the Kenyan dream is much alive given the country’s huge success in producing stars like Olympic and World champion Ezekiel Kemboi, who won an unrivalled fourth consecutive World 3,000m steeplechase title.

Deliberate development and promotion of this sports brand could catapult the country to prominence.

We have not captured the full potential of what sports can do for our economy. Only a few Kenyans make money from athletics and sports yet we have conquered the continent in women’s volleyball and at one time we almost conquered the world in cricket.

There lies immense earning potential from a Kenyan sport brand that would generate much needed revenues to make a significant contribution to the GDP.

Nike pays top athletes to use its products and promote and advertise tits technology and design. The firm has also sponsored many successful track and field athletes such as Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sebastian Coe. It has also been the official sponsors of the Indian cricket team since 2005.

We haven’t built an industry around our sports; our business people are not establishing brands for sportswear that one can associate with Kenya.

Our excellence in sports could be transformed into a thriving industry like in Australia where sport and recreation contribute an estimated 15 per cent to the economy.

It’s time a Kenyan company built a brand like Nike or Puma; something distinctively Kenyan.

We need a paradigm shift in the structure and management of sports organisations for it to become an industry.

One of the ways forward is to have Kenyan youth aware of all the different areas that they could divert into and thrive.

Kemboi’s jig to the tune of Emily Chepchumba has become his trademark and if the form book is anything to go by he will be dusting off the routine a few more times in the near future – and a host of his teammates are set to join him on the medal podiums.

That is a dividend cheque waiting to be cashed.

Mr Waswa is a management and HR specialist and managing director of Outdoors Africa. E-mail: [email protected]