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We should embrace Talanta Hela project

Friday, June 9th, 2023 00:00 | By
Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports and Arts Ababu Namwamba. PHOTO/Courtesy

The Talanta Hela Programme which is set to be launched at State House this afternoon by President William Ruto, is a noble course as it is bound to bring beneficial changes in sports majorly in two ways

First, the project is in line with the government’s bottom-up economic transformation agenda and aims to identify, recruit, nurture, market, and monetise talent.

The initiative will also promote and inculcate the value of sport to our athletes in various disciplines besides striving to impart good values of the game to them.

We want to believe the launch is a major undertaking for the Kenya Kwanza government that promised to streamline sports upon taking over the reins of power after the 2022 General Election.

Project is also set to work with the education system to identify schools that will act as academies and nurture certain sports.

As part of implementation of the project, Kenya Academy of Sports will be renamed the Kenya Academy of Sports and Arts to accommodate the creative industry.

But given that the initiative will begin with football this year, Football Kenya Federation should do the right thing by making good use of the opportunity to search for talents to serve as a feeder to the national senior men’s team, Harambee Stars as well as its womens’ counterparts, Harambee Starlets.

Rightly so, the federation should strive to reach schools to identify potential players who will then be enrolled in academies that shall be bankrolled by the government.

Other sports disciplines earmarked for the programme in subsequent years should also follow suit, especially athletics and rugby where Kenya has performed exemplarily well internationally.

This will be especially important now that Kenya has already bid to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations jointly with Tanzania and Uganda.

Both Harambee Stars and Harambee Starlets will need quality players to perform on the big stage, hence the importance of the venture.

As part of the implementation of the project.

Let’s not play politics in the impending venture but rather give it a try and if the returns will not be achieved discard it altogether.

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