Kenyan Women Football and the Challenges they face

Women’s football in Kenya has gain popularity in the recent past and is currently among the top sports being considered for international matches due to their best performances.

Football is the fourth most popular sport for women in the country, trailing behind volley, basketball, and field hockey.

This popularity led to the creation of the female-run Kenya Women’s Football Federation, who organized a national team that represented the country several times in international tournaments.

The first women’s league in Kenya and national team were created in 1985 at a time when almost no country in the world had a women’s national football team. The national team was then nicknamed the ‘Harambee Starlets’ and national team players are not full-time professional players.

The women premier league is marred by so many challenges. Lack of sponsorship being top of the list. It is common sense that football teams need financial support for them to actively compete with other top teams.

Harambee starlets being a top tier league, it’s naturally expected that every aspect of this league is top notch. The league plays a vital role in our national women’s team set up. There is no way as a country to sit back and expect the ladies to bring home trophies and showcase quality performance at the national levels when the league is languishing.

According to an article written on Women in Football by Sarah Ogonyo, we need to manifest our intent to do better beginning with our league and I believe the federation has the capacity. The stakeholders have literally shouldered the burden of preparing players for the National team single-handedly and it’s about time the federation upped their game.

Among the top performing leagues in Africa, Kenya was ranked 4^th in 2017. Now that is something to smile about thanks to the dedicated online sports columns who have made it their cup of tea to market women sports.

Ogonyo further notes that despite the fact that countries like Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda only smell Kenyan women football from afar, they, in turn, seem so organized financially.

“Believe it or not, Kenya has the best and with just a little more support Africa shall be ours to lose. Did I mention that Ethiopian Women Premier league is considered the highest paying league? Yes, they are, but they can only manage position 5 for now,” says Ogonyo.

These players also lack enough pay and they are forced to seek employment elsewhere so as to make ends meet. This means that they are not full-time national players which in turn also affects performance since there is no motivating factor in place to push the players to give their best.

Poor governance is also a key aspect that contributes to the woes being faced by women footballers in Kenya. The management body in place, the Kenya Women’s Football Federation is full of corrupt officials who quench their selfish interests with the funds meant for the teams.

It is about time that we set our priorities right. When women in football perform well, the country gets all the credit. Standing side by side is the only thing that will help build up these players.

Kenyan women football needs support through sponsorships and the attack on gaming firms that have been very instrumental in helping them out will just make matters worse.