Kenyans find it hard to sing the national anthem

By Mutwiri Mutuota

It is surprising that most Kenyans cannot sing all the three stanzas of the national anthem. With the New Constitution requiring all of them to be played, most members of the Kenyan contingent at Nehru Stadium on Saturday found themselves belting the first verse with gusto only for the enthusiasm to die in the ensuing two.

 Civic education on singing all the three stanzas of the national anthem should be considered countrywide to spare Kenyans blushes. Even our winning runners, Grace Momanyi, Milcah Chemos and Mark Mutai could be clearly seen on the giant screen mute in verse two and three of our national tune.

The unifying power of sport was evident here in Delhi on Sunday when thousands jammed the Siri Fort Sports Complex more than eight hours before the start of the eagerly awaited hockey clash between India and Pakistan.

The game recorded the first full house of these Commonwealth Games since the opening ceremony. Delhi 2010 has been hit by embarrassing attendance numbers as it emerges that most of the tickets meant for schools have landed in the black market.

Others have their bar codes not registering at the entry machines following duplication of their numbers and for an event with such tight security due to a high terrorism alert, the lapses in ticketing could be God forbid, a ticking time bomb!

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With Sunday being relatively slow on the competition front as far as Team Kenya was concerned, yours truly decided to link up with fellow scribes to sample Delhi's nightlife.

The exuberant journos needed not to have bothered leaving their hotel because, one and a half hours of a total wild goose chase later, they were dropped back to their abode having seen nought entertainment spots! The reason is quite simple, to enhance security, Delhi authorities are closing all major roads in the metropolis once traffic from Commonwealth venues thins thereby cutting all links from one area to the next.

 It’s not only the Kenyans who had their party plans pooped, a group from Britain were cursing loudly when they found the road to their hotel blocked and unrelenting authorities were telling them, "Open at 5, only open at 5"