Blogs

One day I went for a meeting in a school. When I entered the compound I saw a group of schoolboys, in their uniforms, playing football with a proper leather football. The boys were playing, joking and laughing. As a football lover I always have to stop and watch the game for a while. Outside the field three girls were standing and watching the boys playing.

The meetings that we used to organize for teachers in preparation for our MTG school tournaments used to be challenging for our girls. We encouraged them to take up roles during those meetings such as present an introduction about MTG, explain the tournament rules and facilitate the process of making the fixtures. We always had to prepare it well and senior staff had to be ready to assist the girls. A few years ago we started to combine the meetings with coaching sessions for the teachers. Our coaches train the teachers in football coaching.

And finally.... MTG was called that one of our players, Mbeyu Akida, was selected for the national team. The team was expected in Nairobi for the first qualification match for the All African Games against Sudan. It would have been the first match of the national teams since 2006 when they had beaten Djibouti 8 - 0.

Last week the African Women’s Football Championship kicked off in South Africa. The opening game was a thrilling match between our neighbours, Tanzania – the Twiga Stars - and the home team, Banyana Banyana. Kenya’s women footballers had missed out on an opportunity to showcase their talent. Again.