Sports and Commentators

I watched with detached interest the arrival of our highly successful athletes from the commonwealth games in Melbourne, Australia. For years now, we have made effort at all the major sporting disciplines but with the exception of the Rugby, Women’s Volleyball and maybe the odd skier at the winter Olympics in Turino, Italy; Kenya is pretty much a cut and dried runner’s country and pictures of arriving winners with medals dangling, receiving accolades are back to the sports pages. I was keener on the upcoming WBC Female Middleweight Championship fight between our very own Conjestina Achieng, who has a brunt, in your face approach complete with a "Tyson" look to match, and the tall American Yvonne Reis who was clearly on a charm offensive with her friendly and polite manners. It was a “Rumble of temperaments” and it generated a lot of interest.

The 10 round bout was broadcast live by the National TV, KBC, Saturday evening. The commentator provided a running commentary so I guessed he must have been doubling up for radio as well. Either way, he was a big disappointment. He came out as Conjestina’s biggest fan. Heavily biased towards her, he completely failed to give a fair account of the bout. He made a mockery of Reis’s prancing around the ring and her seemingly soft punches while magnifying the Kenyan’s own lackluster efforts. Even before the bout ended, he had already declared her the winner. Many viewers and listeners who had been won over by the American’s charm were distraught, and you can guess the disbelief on both camps when the judges unanimously declared her the victor!

As Conjestina and her angered fans cried foul, my mind went back some five years or so, to the return leg match of a world cup qualifier between the Kenyan national Soccer team “Harambee Stars” and the Nigerian “Super Eagles” held at Lagos. Good old KBC was unable to send its crew to cover the match and after a public outcry, they did arrange for a live feed from their counterparts at Lagos. That was a mistake. The Nigerian commentator had no kind words for anything Kenyan; he rubbished our players and likened our national team to a second division side. He loudly wondered how the team had made it so far into the tournament and if that was not all, he reduced our ultramodern Moi Sports Complex, Kasarani, in Nairobi where the first leg of the match was held to a “bumpy pitch.”

Although we lost the series, much of the anger and shame came from the commentators remarks. As I urge our dear Conjestina to learn from the defeat, I feel that journalists and match commentators alike should provide fair and balanced coverage, no matter which side they are on.