Parliamentary Sports Committee now welcome federations to hear their plight on funding
The battle for sports funding between federations and the Sports Ministry escalated yesterday when the departmental committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism chaired by Machakos town Member of Parliament (MP) Victor Munyaka invited six federations for a meeting to hear their grievances.
The six federations, through their heads who met last week, had written a protest letter to the committee questioning why funds were not being disbursed to them, against the initial plan when the Sports Fund was formed.
The letter from the committee that was addressed to Football Kenya Federation (FKF), Kenya Rugby Union (KRU), Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF), Athletics Kenya (AK), Kenya Table Tennis Association (KTTA) and Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) acknowledged receipt of a letter dated October 22, requesting for a meeting with the committee and it granted their wish.
“The committee is in receipt of your letter dated October 22, 2019 requesting for a meeting with it (Committee) on the failure to fund national teams by the National Sports Fund and the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage. The committee has acceded to your request and resolved to invite you for a meeting on Tuesday, November 5, 2019 at 9:30am,” the letter, signed by Clerk of the National Assembly read in part.
The federations are keen to address the continuous frustration in receiving government funding through the Sports Fund. They also brought to the committee’s attention alleged lack of feedback to their correspondence by the fund administrator and Principal Secretary for sports Peter Kaberia.
The invite for the said federations comes at the backdrop of a war of words between FKF president Nick Mwendwa and the PS as the former accused Kaberia of sabotaging the federation even after receiving orders from the Cabinet Secretary (CS) Amina Mohamed.
The PS, who is understood to be out of the country, is said to have asked FKF to fully account for the money they had received from government, especially during the Africa Cup of Nations, and disclose how much money they receive from external sources and sponsors before they can ask for more money.
The federations’ letter to the parliamentary committee further underscored fears of consequences the country risks to attract if national teams do not honour upcoming international engagements already sanctioned by the world governing sports bodies.
KRU are set to fund the national Sevens team to next month’s Olympic qualifier in South Africa as well as the World Sevens Series expected to kick-off in Dubai in early December. The women’s national team, Lionesses, recently qualified for the Olympics and the players are yet to be paid their allowances.
AK at the same time is behind on preparations for hosting the Under 20 World Athletics Championships with funds touted as the biggest impediment. Athletes still owe the federation allowances and bonuses for various junior and senior events.
