The new Harambee Starlets technical bench has drawn mixed reaction from a section of football stakeholders and pundits.
Starlets provisional squad are set to hit camp on Wednesday in preparation for the upcoming international friendly against Zambia’s Copper Bullets and the Africa Women's Cup of Champions (AWCON) qualifiers.
The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) on Friday released a provisional list of 30 players who will be in camp in readiness for the upcoming fixtures. The selection itself caused an uproar with many claiming that the team was not selected on merit.
The current technical bench comprises of David Ouma(Head coach), Lawrence Webo(Goalkeepers coach), Charles Okere(Assistant coach) and Mldred Cheche(Team manager).
According to the critics, the above are not in touch with the Women’s game. They have also argued that the coaches in the FKF WPL deserve a chance to oversee the national team.
“Male coaches coach Women teams but coaches in the Harambee Starlets are from men teams. How does this one march anyway?” argued Alfred Marori on a fans WhatsApp forum.
“All aspects here totally differ, training technicalities, lifestyle etc then you expect us to sit , watch and listen to your ignorant arguments here which don't make sense. Even if it takes defending the rotten FKF, be a little bit clever when doing it,” he argued.
A pro FKF fan Dennis Hamisi however differed with Marori saying that there is more that comes into consideration when such appointments are made.
“You cry that Harambee starlets TB should be headed by WPL coaches. These coaches are mostly males. On the other hand you do not want those same males to handle women soccer. How many female coaches do we have in Kenya? Lastly, FIFA has no such policy. Unless we have another FIFA here in Kisii,” Hamisi, a former Shabana and Zoo Kericho footballer said.
David Ouma is credited as being the first man to take Kenya to their first ever Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2016. The Dutch-trained tactician with the highest CAF Level A certification started out his coaching career as a youth coach at the Mathare Youth Sports Association in Nairobi, Kenya.
A trained architect has coached Mathare United (as an assistant coach) and Sofapaka before.
Lawrence Webo on the hand in his second stint as the Starlets goalkeeper coach after being fired in June 2016 for a sex scandal that rocked the team’s camp. He is currently the AFC Leopards keepers coach, a position he held at Posta Rangers soon after his dismissal at Harambee Starlets.
Midred Cheche is currently the Team Manager at top of the table chasing KCB while Okere is Robert Matano’s assistant at Tusker FC.