by Ben Ochieng
NAIROBI, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- After successfully hosting the IAAF World Under-18 Athletics Championships in Nairobi, the euphoria that was experienced in the athletics-mad east African nation was anticipated to be transferred to the event currently taking place in London.
However, the expectation has been contrary after Kenya's general elections obliterated the games to the back-burner as the polls took centre-stage.
"It is sad that electioneering has hogged all space on the mainstream and social media platforms and overshadowing the global athletics event where Kenya is currently placed in second position after the United States," Kenya's sprints head coach Stephen Mwaniki told Xinhua on Thursday in an interview.
Kenya has reaped three gold medals, one silver medal and three bronze medals behind the U.S. that has a tally of (3,5,3).
Kenya's print and electronic media are currently awash with election results, with the latter offering live coverage all day long especially at a time when citizens would be glued to television sets to catch the action live.
In the past, it has been the norm for restaurants and pubs to offer customers live coverage of the sporting event, however this time round most public eateries are closed.
The few operating ones are beaming live coverage of the on-going vote counting and tallying as Kenyans await the outcome of the winner of the presidential elections and other political positions.
The country went to the polls on Aug. 8 to elect the president, governors, senators, members of parliament, women representatives and members of the county assembly in an election that was a hotly contested.
In 2015, Kenya won the overall title during the championships that were held in Beijing after bagging seven gold medals, six silver medals and three bronze medals ahead of second-placed Jamaica and the U.S. in third position.
Nairobi-based sports scientist, Bernard Migo, says that matters have been made worse with the country only having only three journalists, all from one media house to cover the event.
"This has limited the space for giving the Kenyan perspective during the championships. In the past event, TV stations would send journalists to cover the extravaganza, but this time all the cameras and personnel were deployed to report about the elections," Migo noted.
"The state of affairs has reduced the public attachment to the games where only few of their athletes are featured," he remarked.
The global games end on Sunday whereas presidential election results are expected any time soon, after which it will be too late to revert to the games.
