NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 31 – Prime Minister Raila Odinga wants youths in the country to promote ethnic cohesion through sports to facilitate the realisation of the Kenyan dream.
He cautioned the young generation to avoid being swayed into ethnic cocoons but foster unity and peaceful coexistence of all the tribes within the borders.
The Premier told an award ceremony for the Super 8 Soccer Tournament that the youth stood a better chance to exploit the fanatical sporting spirit to overcome ethnic barriers and push the Kenyan dream to the next level.
“We should emerge from our ethnic compartments and rediscover our national spirit which saw our founding fathers unite to overcome the colonial rule as a people,” he said.
Odinga who has lately traversed the country to propagate unity of Kenyans declared his resolve to bridge the retrogressive ethnic divisions which he said dogged the country’s progress since independence.
He attributed the loss of focus on national aspirations to poor leadership in the post independence regimes where ethnic undertones and rhetoric took the centre stage at the expense of integration.
Mr Odinga assured the sporting fraternity in the country of the government’s determination to promote the games as a tool to cement the ethnic divide in the nation.
He urged the youth to take sports seriously as it could offer job opportunities for hundreds of unemployment lot.
During the ceremony held at the Kenyatta International conference Centre Vapour Football club emerged top in the league which attracted teams from the eight constituencies within the Nairobi Province.
The tournament which was sponsored by Extreme Sports limited also saw the top four teams in every constituency awarded trophies while Dan Odhiambo scooped the golden boots in the performance category.
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