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The Sports CS exonerated his Ministry from blame over claims of poor treatment of athletes made by MPs when he appeared in parliament on Wednesday
Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has exonerated himself and his ministry from blame over a number of issues raised by Members of Parliament over what they term poor treatment of Kenyan teams to various international competitions.
Namwamba appeared in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon to respond to:
Why the Kenya Special Olympics team jetted out without being flagged off and why the he did not deem it reasonable to celebrate the team following their return.
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Why a majority of athletes fly economy while the ministry officials were flying businessand first class.
The session started with drama when Majority Leader Kimani Ichungw’a read Namwamba’s response to the allegations in a letter in which he had dismissed them as baseless with the Kikuyu MP saying the tone and language of the letter was condescending.
Namwamba was then forced to withdraw the letter by Speaker Moses Wetangula before he began to defend himself and his ministry.
Responding to the claims that the Special Olympics team was not properly treated, Namwamba said: “I was not at the airport at the departure of this team but officers of the ministry accompanied this team and ensured that all preparations required were done and full funding required were done.”
He added: “We remained in touch with this team throughout the period of these games, we tracked their participation and upon their return we had a reception at the airport with traditional dancers and officials from the ministry. We arranged after their arrival a special reception to honour them. At that reception, we provided Ksh18.7 million as rewards for this team (Ksh750,000 for gold, Ksh500,000 for sliver and Ksh300,000 for bronze).
“The ministry was fully represented by PS Peter Tum because I was out of town on official assignment. This Ministry is not run as a one-man show and we share responsibilities. So, this team was well handled, well received and well rewarded for the excellent performance. I have also been available to receive and send off Kenyan teams multiple times.”
On the same issue, Kipipiri MP Wanjiku Muhia claimed the team was made to travel late as the ministry allegedly procured air tickets when the event had already started, while Ichungw’a asked the CS if his docket was underfunded or had incompetent staff.
“We have had limitations with budget allocation and among the ministries that suffer budget cuts it is this ministry. We have the Sports Fund but traditionally, this fund supports so many other things such as healthcare, education, school feeding programmes. One of the things we will be asking this House to do is to rein fence this fund and make it strictly a fund for sports and the arts.
“Also, among the biggest challenges facing this ministry is the ecosystem of federations and this country should know that the running of sports is not exclusively for the sports ministry. It’s a partnership between government and federations. The issue of kitting is for respective federations to submit budgets to government but we have a serious governance problem.
“And I invite the house to support the cleaning of federations so that they hold elections on time. We have a situation where some federations are run by life officials. Some of thee issues require legislation.”
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15:00 - 23.08.2023
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Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss also claimed that the team used fake adidas kit to the games, while Ichungw’a said he had received information that even Team Kenya at the ongoing World Athletics Championships had no spikes and had to borrow from friends.
“Kenyan teams at this level do not use adidas as a brand. In fact, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya, which is responsible for kitting these teams, has an existing contract with Nike. It is a contract we found in place and Kenyan teams are by virtue of that contract kitted by Nike. The team that went to Budapest, I flagged it off, and it was fully kitted by Nike as per the contract,” said Namwamba.
Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang put the CS on the spot over the issue of joyriders to various assignments, claiming he did not care while he dined in fine hotels.
“I am the least travelled CS. Because of austerity measures, I have not accompanied our teams out and we chose to send technical officials. Like this event (Special Olympics), we sent the acting CEO and Director of Sports. The team in Budapest also has a technical officer accompanying PS Tum,” he responded.
Kajiado Central MP Kanchori Memusi went as far as asking Namwamba if he should resign for ‘painting the country in a negative manner’ to which the former Budalang’I MP said he would not be doing.
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