Appointment: Joe Okudo in-tray full at Sports docket
Joe Okudo walks into the Sports Ministry as Principal Secretary with his work cut out.
The immediate former Tourism Principal Secretary replaces Kirimi Kaberia who was transferred to the Ministry of Mining in a similar capacity in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s mini Cabinet reshuffle yesterday.
Okudo is, however, not new in sports, having served as PS Culture when Hassan Wario was Cabinet Secretary and given most of what he left at Kencom House close to three years ago still remains unresolved, he will need to hit the ground running.
The month of July will particularly test Okudo’s mettle since Kenya will host the World Under-20 Championships at Kasarani Stadium from July 7-12, the Safari Rally from July 16-19 before the Tokyo Olympics begin from July 24-August 9 in Japan.
The success of these events will depend on how well the Sports Ministry plans itself and given Okudo is the new chief accounting officer, he cannot afford to get it wrong.
Already, Kenya is behind schedule in preparations for the U20 event which had been blamed on an alleged frosty relationship between Kaberia and the Local Organising Committee.
With Kenya having been readmitted into the World Rally Championship, the Safari Rally will be back after an 18-year hiatus and the Sports Ministry, headed by CS Amina Mohammed and Okudo will be instrumental in making it a success.
Any wrong move might sway FIA’s thinking and have the event scraped off the calendar again.
Then there is the Olympics. Already, a number of individual athletes and teams have qualified for the summer event in Tokyo. However, its not about qualifying but how well they perform.
That means proper preparations is a must, hence the need for the ministry to financially support the National Olympics Committee in time for them to give the Tokyo-bound contingent great build-up.
Another thing that Okudo will have to grapple with is the state of stadiums in the country.
The renovation of Nyayo and Kipchoge Keino Stadiums have not been completed despite starting close to three years ago and hundreds of millions spent while Kaberia has been accused of favouring some facilities when it came to allocating funds, an issue the new man will have to sort out.
A war of words with federation heads over the slow pace of releasing money to national teams from the Sports Fund characterised Kaberia’s final months at Kencom and Okudo cannot let that continue in 2020.
