President Ruto set to launch Talanta Hela tournament in June

President William Ruto will officially launch the highly anticipated Bottom-Up youth football tournament under the flagship program of Talanta Hela.

The under -19 competition for both men and women is scheduled for kick off, few days after its official unveiling at State House Nairobi.

In an exclusive interview with Milele FM Sports, Cabinet Secretary for Sports Ababu Namwamba has scoffed off fears that the Talanta Hela program had hit a snag saying a lot has been happening behind the scenes especially on planning phases to ensure its success.

“Talanta Hela has not stalled, there have been a lot of planning that have been going on. Because it involves a lot of things, it is not about football only. This involves a lot of activities like football, artistry, music, cinema, Talanta Hela has many things under one roof and there there has been a number of activities going on,” Namwamba told Milele FM Sports.

Last year during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Nyayo Stadium, president Ruto spoke vividly about the introduction of the Bottom-Up tournament to hasten talent development from grassroot levels for the growth of the sport in the country.

“We will work with our governors for each county to build a team from ward level. This is the first step in our football vision 2030 where we target Harambee Stars to play at the 2030.Let us build Kenyan football Bottom-Up.

“Through the revolutionary of Talanta Hela plan and monetize our sports and creative industry. As part of this plan I have accepted to champion a grassroot football development program that will see the national government work with county governments to invest heavily in youth football,” Ruto said.

Six months down the line, the tournament has not kicked off, developing fears on its take off from some football stakeholders in the country with the final set for the next Jamhuri Day at Nyayo.

After the launch next week, it will be arguably a race against time to achieve the set timeline, of course depending on the format of the competition.

“Football is coming, on June 2, the President will launch the tournament and even as that happens other activities of Talanta Hela will be on. The Bottom -Up model will be up and running from next month the launch and teams will play for six months and its culmination being the next Jamhuri Day when we will be celebrating 60 years as a country and also we be celebrating Bottom -Up as a government policy,” added CS Namwamba.

On the issues of format of the tournament, Namwamba says the president will give all the details during the launch event at State House, a format that may include pairing of teams, match schedules and other details like registration and prize money in the multimillion government project.

On February this year, the ambitious Sports CS announced a technical committee to sketch and to oversee the roadmap of the tournament. The Committee is headed by veteran Sports Journalist Carol Radul. Former Kenya internationals of Bonface Ambani and Sammy Sholei are also part of the team.