CS Amina reflects on sports gains as Geneva comes calling

On Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta submitted the name of Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed to vie for the position of Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

In his statement to the nation, President Kenyatta paid glowing tribute to the CS, saying she was the best candidate for the position.

“Amina Mohamed has served this nation greatly across several ministerial portfolios,” the President said.

“She served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade. She has also served as Minister for Education, Science and Technology and is currently serving as Kenya's Minister for, Sports, Culture and Heritage.

“These over and above many other Senior Governmental jobs as Ambassador, Permanent Secretary and many other portfolios that she has held in the past.”

DAUNTING POSITION

Amina’s nomination came hours before deadline with eight candidates vying for the enviable, yet daunting position.

They include Britain's first post-Brexit international trade secretary Liam Fox and former Saudi economy minister Mohammed al-Tuwaijri who join candidates from Egypt, Mexico, Moldova, Nigeria and South Korea.

According to agency reports, the WTO General Council will meet from July 15 to 17 “to hear their presentations and quiz them on their plans for the global trade body, which was beset with mammoth challenges even before the pandemic-driven global economic crisis struck.”

Should Amina win the seat, she will still be around as Sports CS, waiting to relocate to WTO’s Geneva headquarters sometime next year.

And while the WTO position will be advantageous to Kenya, Amina’s departure from the sports docket will certainly be felt, owing to the great steps she has taken, especially in accelerating infrastructure development, financing sports and cushioning sportspeople against the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

VERY BAD IMPACT

The CS was on the panel at Thursday’s NTV Nation Leadership Forum where she explained the gains sports continues to celebrate under her captaincy.

Moderated by NTV sports anchor Idah Waringa, the panel also had world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya Ports Authority’s General Manager (HR and Administration) Daniel Ogutu and US-based former Kenya basketball international Peter Kiganya.

“This is the first time sports has been disrupted in this manner,” she reacted to the coronavirus situation.

“Sports bring people together… all that has been, in one, minute taken away… It’s had a very bad impact on sportsmen and women.”

The government has partnered with corporates to cushion vulnerable athletes with Sh50 million voted from the government kitty for the stimulus programme that includes food relief and a three-month, Sh10,000-a-month cash subsidy for vulnerable sportspeople.

“We have been able to support over 2,400 sportsmen and women. We’ve now given them the second month’s Sh10,000 stipend and we shall continue doing that as long as we have resources,” she explained. “It’s a very good partnership between the government and the corporate sector.

“The sportsmen and women have been very gracious and they have sent very amazing, positive messages back to the ministry on how that package has supported them.

“We have also given food rations to our sportswomen, because many of them are single mothers with children at home… we have been doing this every two weeks. It may not be a lot, but it helps them.”

Amina says her ministry wishes to tap into the private sector’s investment in sports to go beyond the stimulus packages into sponsorship deals.

“Some of our elite athletes deserve those sponsorship deals. If they can get corporate sponsorships deals abroad, I don’t see why those in the corporate here sector cannot do the same here at home.”

She also spoke about the need to commercialise sports, including support for national teams.

“The stimulus package is an interim measure and we need to come with much more sustainable ways of supporting our teams.”

Top on Amina’s agenda since her arrival at Kencom House just over one year ago is infrastructure development.

With the state of Kenya’s public stadiums a worry, the CS will be credited with breaking away the bureaucracy involved in renovation contracts and pushing erstwhile nonchalant contractors to deliver.

She has also been able to open up the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund to offer greater assistance to sports development.

In his recent budget speech, Finance Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani voted Sh14 billion to the fund.

“The percentage (from the fund) for sports is about 35 percent. We are having discussions about those percentages so that there can be much more resources at our disposal.”

She prides herself of having done away with perennial complains of under-funded or broke national teams at international competitions.

“For the last year and a bit that I have been in office, we have never had a case where a national team was going out and was denied resources.

“We have made sure that they have the resources that they need to go out. We are under a directive by His Excellency the President to make sure that all our teams are able to participate in events that they are invited to or events that they deserve to participate in… It’s not even an issue that should be discussed anymore. We have the resources, a roadmap and structures.”

The CS says she is proud of Kenya’s sports financing model which is “way ahead of much more developed nations.”

“The US government does not support sports as much as the Government of Kenya does,” she argues.

“Sports in the US is supported by the corporate sector, fully, completely, totally.

“In fact, we are a model for developing countries and a model for many developed countries.

“In the UK, it’s actually the lottery that supports sports development… so we should actually be patting ourselves on the back and we should be saying thank you to His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta for setting up a fund that does not exist anywhere else where the government injects a lot of resources to support our sportsmen and women because we are so proud of them.”

Touching on the topic of infrastructure during Thursday’s forum, Kipchoge said there are challenges in Kenya but added that Amina was up to the task.

“We have a working CS in Amina… all in all, stadiums have not been built but I think it’s in the pipeline.

“I can’t say more about that because although I’m an athlete and I need somewhere to train, as far as administration is concerned there are those in charge and I leave it to them.

“You can talk freely with Amina and I think every citizen can reach Amina in an easy way… we are in good hands.”

The CS highlighted the gains so far.

“The development of infrastructure is a serious priority for us and we have set ourselves the deadline of December to complete a good number of stadiums,” she explained.

MANY ON TARGET

“Any contractor I feel is not keeping the promise to Kenyan people, sportsmen and women and the promise we have made to His Excellency the President, then that contractor will not continue working with us.

“So far, many of them are on target. We expect two of them to be completed by 15th of July — there are two stadiums in Meru and we hope those will be completed by then.

“Nyayo and Kasarani are almost done. In fact we are going into the second phase of Nyayo next week.

“Kamariny (in Elgeyo-Marakwet County) is a bit of a worry but the contractor is on the ground so we are hopeful we will get the work done; Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Uasin Gishu is on target so we should also be able to get that one done and we will be on Kisumu very, very soon.

“We are under direction from His Excellency the President to have them completed so that Kenyans can actually start using them.”

Thursday’s other panelists — Ogutu, Kipchoge and Kiganya — said Amina has had good run at the sports docket so far ranging from engineering the construction of more stadiums to ensuring there is enough cash in the sports fund and discouraging athletes from doping.

Ogutu said Kenya’s sportsmen and women are in the good hands of the government with Amina at the helm and predicted a very bright future for Kenya sports.

“She has served diligently. We are proud of her and her accomplishments and the contributions she has made in sports and would really pray that she wins the WTO post," Ogutu said.

“The CS has been sport on every aspect at the sports helm which makes her a sure bet for the top WTO post because of her work ethic which has seen her revive all sports activities in the country,” Kiganya said.