There is a posse of high school students who never seem to finish school. For eight years running you may spot them playing football for different schools until they fade into oblivion or they resurface in some league teams.

They play in the secondary school games until they become older than Methuselah.

They can only shine when playing alongside younger boys whose voices have not broken. The sheer smell of their sweat; the bulge of their muscles; the yellowing hair under their armpits; the hardness of their bones are enough to scare the young boys into submission. They love to win and travel to the East Africa games at the expense of the legitimate students.

Of course birth certificates and other documents help ascertain the age of students before they are allowed to play in the school games but this is Kenya and everything is possible.

Birth certificates are scanned and altered; in some cases, the cheats are furnished with new documents totally different from the first one they got. In this way, 25-five-year olds pass as 17-year olds. They become much younger even though they possess all the molars, jutting cheekbones and beards. This is usually the genesis of cheating that goes ahead into the under-17 and under-20 games.

The cheating players are aided by school heads hungry for victory by any means.

The principal and the sports master actually take their time to scout for the youth in question and do all the necessary alterations on their documents for the purpose of cheating their way to the top.

LACK OF CONSCIENCE

Shamelessness and lack of conscience is the order of the day. Sooner or later, after they win they forget all about the deceitful tactics they used to attain their goal. The children thus used are then discarded having learnt that cheating is fine in this country.

They shall go ahead and con for the rest of their lives. Our red-eyed heads meanwhile keep on scouting for other overage players. There are schools where these poor children never see the inside of a classroom!

They wake up in the morning and head directly to the pitch for practice. They are given special diet and as such they train the whole year round while others students learn. One shudders to think about what happens to them after a decade in different schools.

You may ask why the other institutions never complain to the authorities about the cheating in these games. They do complain a lot, but without evidence, what can they do? The burden of proof is left upon the complainant.

He is expected to peruse all the documents to prove if they are original; for those that appear to be fake, the complainant should go to the registration bureau and ask for the files of the suspected culprits so that he may know the truth. That is a tall order which our average sports master cannot do.

The cheats still remain in force cutting corners and winning matches.

The foregoing is the true state of affairs in the secondary school games and soon we shall have 20-year olds playing for primary schools. This is the reason why there is grumbling in the U-17 and U-20 leagues.

For some of us who love youth football, it is a source of trauma to see grown men passing for under 17. This wrong must be corrected immediately or else it shall kill our football.