Welcome back PS Okudo, inject life in sports which is on sick bed
What you need to know:
- The Football Kenya Federation elections will soon be held, the constitutions of many sports association are not compliant with the Sports Act, football clubs are in disarray because of poor management and the Kenyan Premier League has no sponsor.
- Clubs have not paid their players in months. The list of woes in the sports sector is endless.
Kirimi Kaberia, the former Sports Principal Secretary is gone. A lot of bile was spewed on him by sports federations and other sports stakeholders unhappy with his tenure.
When he was at the helm, the Ministry of Sports had sunk into a deep black hole. We shall not miss him for as long as sanity is restored in sports.
Last October, we watched him and Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed when they appeared the National Assembly’s Committee on Sports to answer questions on matters related to the running of the ministry.
We did not expect much from Parliament. However, the Member of Parliament for Webuye West, Dan Wanyama, made statements that cannot be repeated in this column for legal reasons.
His remarks should have embarrassed the officials, but no, they didn’t. Embarrassment does not seem to exist for many of us and resignation is never an option. The status quo remained until Kaberia was moved to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining last week.
We wish him no ill and hope he will be successful at his new posting. May he excel in all his future endeavours. President Uhuru Kenyatta named a “new” PS during the Cabinet reshuffle last week.
We put the quotation marks because PS Joe Okudo has been in the Ministry of Sports before. He was brought in from the Ministry of Tourism. He worked under the ministry of my schoolmate and fellow thespian Dr Hassan Wario who was sacked as Sports CS.
We dedicate this week’s column to Okudo. We hope that the stadiums that were promised by the Jubilee administration will finally be constructed. This is one of the issues the parliamentary committee questioned Kaberia and Amina on when they appeared before the panel.
Mr Okudo, we would like you to streamline the ministry and deliver the promises made to Kenyans touching on sports. It is a shame that the sector is rotting away and too many young people would rather turn to drugs instead of shaping their lives through sports!
All sports disciplines in Kenya are ailing, and the “new” PS knows it well. The 2016 Rio Olympic Games fiasco is still dragging on in the courts.
The Football Kenya Federation elections will soon be held, the constitutions of many sports association are not compliant with the Sports Act, football clubs are in disarray because of poor management and the Kenyan Premier League has no sponsor. Clubs have not paid their players in months. The list of woes in the sports sector is endless.
Okudo should act fast and correct the mess in sports! Over to you.
