Sports federations have now turned to the National Assembly as they seek an explanation as to why it has been difficult for national teams to get adequate funding from the Sports Fund.
Football Kenya Federation, Kenya Rugby Union, Kenya Basketball Federation, Athletics Kenya, Kenya Table Tennis Association and the Kenya Hockey Union have jointly written to the Parliamentary Sports Committee expressing their frustrations over the lack of support from the Ministry of Sports.
“We wish to inform your office of our continuous frustration in acquiring government funding for our national teams through the National Sports Fund. We are exceedingly concerned by the lack of feedback to our correspondences by the fund administrator and Principal Secretary Ambassador Peter Kaberia, this despite President Uhuru Kenyatta’s pronouncement that all national teams will be supported by the government,” a letter undersigned by the presidents of the five sports federations stated.
“In the coming months, various disciplines will have assignments and risk not being able to honour them if the situation is not remedied. We write to you as an oversight authority to urgently give us a hearing and help us address this sensitive matter, with dire consequences should Kenya fail to honour some of the upcoming international engagements already sanctioned by world governing sports bodies.”
Parliamentary Sports Committee Chairperson Victor Munyaka confirmed the development.
“The letter has been received by the clerk and it will follow some channels before it gets to the committee. Once it is with us then we will grant the federations a hearing as well as the Ministry of Sports,” he told Nation Sport.
Meanwhile, the Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed and Principal Secretary Peter Kaberia were on Thursday grilled by the Parliamentary Sports Committee over various issues among them the state of several sports projects especially stadia and funding for national teams.
