Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has said fixing leadership wrangles in different federations is key to bettering Kenya's performance in sports locally and internationally.
Ababu said this on Wednesday when he appeared before Senate's plenary to respond to public enquiry on various issues around Youth Affairs and Sports.
He highlighted that the ministry's main challenge so far has been the various federations and their managements.
"If I were to pick challenge number one for this ministry, it would be federations and it is across the whole sporting arena,” he said.
The CS gave particular examples including the swimming federation and the football federation who have had leadership wrangles over the years.
“We have had a big challenge with swimming the last three months. Actually, we have spent so much time to sort out a swimming crisis that goes back seven years but we are on the verge of cracking it,” he said.
The world swimming and other aquatic sport’s governing body banned Kenya from taking part in international competitions in August after Kenya Swimming Federation (KSF) failed to hold elections as earlier scheduled.
The governing body had given the federation up to July 8 to hold elections or risk being blacklisted from global events after numerous failures to pick new officials.
KFS has not held elections since 2014, with the current officials wrangling over the structure of the elections among other issues.
Fifa had also suspended football in Kenya on February 24, 2022 after the Sports Ministry disbanded the FKF over alleged misappropriation of funds and appointed a caretaker committee.
Fifa, however, lifted the ban nine months later.
Ababu noted that the ministry was working on a framework together with various federations in order to fix sports in the country and better it.
“We have put together a framework of engagements with federations. I did call all the federations to a forum and all 69 of them turned up. We agreed on a number of irreducible minimums which include transparency and accountability in the utilisation of resources,” the sports CS said.
