By Anil Bakari;During our time in high school decades ago, we had institutions that were perennial top performers in rugby, football and basketball. These schools dwarfed their peers year in, year out.
In football, for instance, these top performers could be likened to Barcelona. In basketball, they were secondary school’s Chicago Bulls or Orlando Magic, and in rugby, they were like Kenya or Fiji Sevens teams.
The schools, which for obvious reasons I will not mention, instilled fear in their opponents. In soccer for instance, whenever they had a match at various tournaments, it was like Harambee Stars meeting Barcelona or Brazil.
You can imagine how psychologically intimidating it was for their opponents, many of them who did not have star players.
But something curious about the top performance was that some of their star players were always unknown to us and even to some of their colleagues. It was certain the schools often brought them in during first term and then they left soon after accomplishing their mission — winning national trophies or advancing to provincial level. In short, they were mercenaries for hire.
While this was an obvious fact, including to teachers and students, the sad thing is that the schools always had a way of beating the laid down rules.
They would prove that the star players had been their students for several years. The evidence would consist of school identity cards, birth certificates, letters of admission and KCPE results slips.
With such overwhelming evidence and a hearty handshake, secondary school games officials would turn a blind eye on the scam.
Not even the cries of defeated teams or letters to government officials would yield results.
This became the standard practice for various schools when they wanted to climb the sport’s food chain and stay tops. The ‘small’ schools adopted the practice, but as expected, some of them were not smart enough. They were caught and punished severely. The unlucky ones got a ban.
It is surprising that secondary school sports officials have been unable to kill this elephant that has grown into an ogre over the years. Schools are still cheating their way to the top.
Laiser Hill is the latest culprit. The school was last week axed from the national basketball championships for fielding ineligible players at the preliminary stages of the games.
Now, cheating is not only evil but also insane. It is a crime that schools should teach their students that one only excels in life through fraud. What do they expert their pupils to learn? Cheating is Godly?
