Unmet promises leave athletes sad again

On two occasions this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta publicly assured Kenyans the government had set aside enough funds to cater to athletes and national teams competing in international assignments.

But the situation on the ground was different.

Time and again, Kenyans were treated to embarrassing shows where athletes and sports officials complained of delayed or inadequate funding, payments and a lack of training grounds.

President Kenyatta made the initial promise on March 10, while gracing the Beyond Zero Half Marathon at the Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi. The race is organised by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and proceeds from the event are all channelled towards supporting maternal healthcare.

“Sports will take centre stage in my government’s agenda this year,” declared President Kenyatta, to the excitement of athletes and sports administrators.

“Our athletes are the shining star of Kenya, so all national teams, be it Harambee Stars (the national football team), netball, rugby, athletics, will be funded. We have put in place a fund (Sports Fund) to take care of that and I want to tell the athletes that they will not lack uniforms or training shoes."

The President would reiterate this commitment five months later at State House, Nairobi, when flagging off the Kenya National Motocross Team to participate at the Motocross African National Continental Championship in Zimbabwe.

“As a government we want to create facilities that nurture the talents that we have in all the different sports disciplines. So at Kasarani, just as much as we have developed the closed range for Safari Rally, just as much as we are developing our football stadiums, athletics, basketball and netball, we will also set aside an arena for motocross,” announced the President.

DIFFERENT SCRIPT

It however, appears persons tasked with implementing these promises were reading from a different script. They include Sports CS Amina Mohammed who was transferred to this Ministry after Rashid Echesa was dismissed in March, plus PS Kirimi Kaberia.

The Head of State’s promises and expectations were heightened after he helped form the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund in February.

It is through this fund, with a reported Sh10 billion budget at inception, that all sports activities were to receive funding.

"We need to revive sports and the arts in the country, one way of doing that is to motivate our young people through adequate resources,” stressed President Kenyatta.

But things didn’t particularly go according to plan.

In May, the Kenya Paralympics team had to block of a section of the busy Thika Superhighway in protest over delays in receiving their allowances from the government.

The squad had returned from the fourth International Athletics meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, harvesting 42 medals including 11 gold. It required the intervention of the police and senior officials from the Ministry of Sports to arrest the situation.

A week earlier, the Africa Junior Athletics team also staged a sit-in at their hotel after the government promised, but failed to settle their allowances.

Some of the athletes Nation Sport spoke to insisted they did not trust government officials to wire the money to their accounts as promised. It required a number of counter-accusations and public relations stunts from the Ministry of Sports to resolve the matter.

But the drama was just getting started.

KRU ASSETS AUCTIONED

Soon reports filtered in that the national netball team was stranded in South Africa after failing to pay its hotel bills. Mohammed denied the allegations but multiple sources in the team maintained the team was struggling to make ends meet.

Soon after, the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) had some of its assets auctioned after accruing debts to prepare the men and women national teams for international engagements. Come November, KRU was forced to turn to the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) for financial assistance to prepare its teams for the 2020 Olympics qualifiers.

All this while, Kaberia consistently absolved himself from blame.

“Most of the requests for funding come in late. It is like some sports officials believe we keep money in the office and that can be released in the morning. We are trying to explain to them accessing government funds is a process,” said Kaberia.

“In other cases, some administrators are resisting change, they feel uncomfortable when we directly pay players and service providers.”

But the biggest standoff involved Football Kenya Federation (FKF) whose president Nick Mwendwa accused Kaberia of deliberately refusing to fund football activities for the period between June and November. At that time, Mwendwa said he had been forced to withdraw the national women football team from camp as it prepared to face Zambia in a 2020 Olympics qualifier.

“We do not know if there is a problem funding ladies teams in Kenya. The PS should tell us. We have learnt all our requests (for funding) have been approved by the Sports Commissioner and forwarded to the fund administrator, but they are yet to be presented to the Board for consideration and approval (by the PS).

But Kaberia fired back, challenging Mwendwa to first account for Sh244 million he received from government to prepare Harambee Stars for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt. Mwendwa maintained he had accounted for the funds. Kaberia also suggested FKF was inflating the costs of services provided to the national team.

Aside from delays in funding the athletes and national teams, it appears the Ministry of Sports has also failed to renovate the sports stadiums despite the availability of finances.

The Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi is a prime example. The facility remains incomplete despite a three-year renovation process that has since stalled, with millions of shillings already spent.

The Meru, Ruring'u and Marsabit stadiums also remain far from complete despite repeated assurances and even commissioning by President Kenyatta.

Athletes will be hoping for better tidings in 2020.