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Football expert joins race for Thika parliamentary seat


Football expert Francis Gaitho has thrown his hat in the ring and joined the Thika Town Parliamentary race.

Gaitho who is a well know figure in both local and international football circles hails from Thika and is hoping to use his voice in parliament to reform the ailing sports sector.

Kenya is currently banned from all football activities by world governing body FIFA, and policy makers with prerequisite knowledge and experience might be the key to unlocking the stalemate.

Francis Gaitho was part the team that prepared Kenya’s winning bid for the 2018 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament hosting rights, which were later withdrawn by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) due to lack of quality stadiums.

He delivered the bid to CAF headquarters in Cairo in 2014, a report exclusively reported by Nation Sports.

Speaking to Nairobi News this morning, Francis Gaitho lamented the general contempt for youth and sporting activities by policy makers, causing the current state of joblessness and unemployment.

“Sports and technology are some of the few sectors which can absorb jobless youths in droves, and they’re ironically the least funded and most neglected in policy formulation” Gaitho says.

“It is quite unfortunate that funds drawn from the sports and youth funds were diverted to recurrent expenditure under the watch of a parliament with so-called “youthful” MP’s” he lamented.

To kickstart his campaign, Francis Gaitho launched his website www.FrancisGaitho.com targeting to engage with his community which mostly comprises of the youth.

Gaitho is calling for fair media coverage by the mainstream media, to afford constituents adequate resources to make the right choice in the August polls.

He hopes that Thika being an important hub, media will exploit the opportunity to host a debate with respective candidates.

He is vying on an Independent ticket.