The country's major sports federations have a date with the Parliamentary Committee on Sports, culture and Tourism next week at Parliament building in regard to the current cash crunch facing them.
Football Kenya Federation, Athletics Kenya, Kenya Rugby Union, Kenya Table Tennis Federation and Kenya Hockey Union will appear before the committee and shed light on the challenges they are facing in preparing teams for various international assignments.
Kenya Rugby Union Chief executive officer (CEO) Sylvia Kamau said managing various national teams without the help of the government is proving very difficult.
Earlier this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta said all national teams will be funded by the government.
Kamau cited Kenya Lionesses who despite securing Olympic qualification early this month in Tunisia, are yet to get any funding from the government.
Kamau said they are yet to clear allowances for the Kenya Simbas for their international assignments as well as Kenya Sevens upcoming fixtures which include the Olympic qualifiers and the World Seven Series.
Kamau said the union is incurring huge debts in trying to run the various national teams and operations. She said despite continued assurances from the Sports Ministry, they are yet to receive a coin. Kamau said the sports fund approved a budget of Sh190 million in July but up to now, they are yet to receive any money.
Speaking recently, Sports Principal Secretary Kirimi Kaberia, said most federations will have to be trained on the modalities of the Sports Fund. He said seminars will be held at Moi Stadium, Kasarani in the next three weeks where the matter will be tackled.
“A good number of our federations don't know how the fund works and we as the ministry will hold seminars to train them," he noted.
Kaberia said going forward, federations budgets will strictly depend on the rules and timelines set out by the Sports Fund.
“Going forward you will see a lot of changes to the timelines and how the fund is being disbursed and when the federations can apply," he noted.
