Sports federations must be accountable to teams and stakeholders they serve, Sports PS Peter TUM has said.
Speaking on Tuesday during a meeting with the National Assembly Committee on Sports and Culture in Mombasa on Tuesday, the PS said federations have turned to a stumbling block to the Ministry of Sports' quest to improve the welfare of sportspersons in the country.
To counter this, the PS said the Ministry has developed a policy that seeks to recognise and reward talented sportspersons through initiatives like Talanta Hela.
“Commercialisation of talent is something we need to do and we now have a policy on that. We have started by enhancing the payment of our athletes,” Tum said.
In the policy, breaking a record attracts a Sh5 million reward from the government.
A gold medal earns Sh1.5 million, a silver earns Sh750,000 and a bronze earns Sh500,000.
He said the government also set aside around Sh100 million to reward sports legends who brought glory to the country in yesteryears.
“When we talk about monetising talent, that is what we mean as a Ministry,” Tum said.
He justified Mosca donation of Sh5m to each of AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia, saying the two Kenyan Premier League giants have made the country proud over the years and it was only fair to bail them out when they got into trouble.
“They (AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia) were into debt. And since these are teams that have made the country proud over the years, we quickly came in and gave them Sh5 million each through the same policy and now they are beginning to stand on their feet,” Tum said.
Committee chairman and Webuye West MP Dan Wanyama commended Mosca for their efforts in ensuring sportspersons make a decent living out of their talent.
“I would ask people not to only look at the negative side of things. We also have to highlight the positives,” Wanyama said.
Tum also had a go at the Football Kenya Federation for failing community clubs, especially Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards.
“We are saying federations must be brought to book,” he said, adding that FKF hides behind Fifa's 'non-interference' policy, forcing the government to take a back seat.
He said the Ministry has written to the National Assembly Committee on Sports, seeking guidance on how to reign in on FKF.
Tum said stabilising the national governing body is the only way to get Kenyan football back on the right path, adding that FKF elections must be held in February next year “whether they like it or not”.
The FKF elections are scheduled for February next year but in January, the federation requested and received permission from Fifa to shelve the polls until 2025.
This, the federation said, is to cover up for lost time when the federation was disbanded by former Sports CS Amina Mohamed, who put in place a caretaker and then a transitional committee, which ran football in Kenya for a year.
The current federation officials were elected in October 2020 and are ideally supposed to serve until February.
