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Nairobi — The heads of sports federations lead by Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) boss Oduor Gangla have come out to defend Amina Mohamed, saying the attacks on the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Heritage were politically instigated.
The sports administrators were speaking on Tuesday during the launch of the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay at Nairobi’s Arboretum where Athletics Kenya, KRU, Kenya Volleyball Federation, Basketball Kenya Federation, Wrestling, Weightlifting, Tennis and Tong-IL Moo-Do among others were the federations present.
This comes after CS Amina ordered an audit to be carried out to the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and a report submitted to her, but the football body in the country has cried foul saying it will attract FIFA ban over government interference.
“We as the sports fraternity we want to categorically state that we have full confidence in the work and the ability of the senior leadership team at the ministry of Sports Culture and Heritage, we have seen enormous improvement in the delivery of services,” KRU supremo Gangla stated.
He added, “We as the sports fraternity in the period that madam CS Amina has been at the helm both from a policy perspective, execution and improvement of working relation with the federations, we have no complains.”
“We had the World Sevens Series in September and October in Canada and all the Kenyans saw, our team finished runners up in Vancouver and third in Edmonton, and these results are not possible if the federation and the government are not working together, we have received good funding support and as rugby our books are always open and we are open to accountability,” Oduor said.
Kenya Volleyball Federation vice president, Charles Nyaberi said all federations must be accountable to the source of funds in this case from the government.
“Federations have been brought up to speed on methods to use to get this money, but when you get the money all of us here you have to account for it, accountability is number one, so in this particular case anybody who will want to hide behind social media and propaganda, I want to tell them that this money is not for any one particular federation,” Nyaberi underscored.
“If you are not able to account for it, don’t go for it find your own money so that you can use it how you want. Never in the history of sports administration has there been such ready and organized federations, for the first time we have systems in the way the government disburses its funds,” he added.
On his part, Kenya Basketball Federation Chairman Paul Otula said, “There has been tremendous improvement in this country and not just sports but also the welfare of athletes when Covid-19 came our athletes were literary down but they stepped forward and I think Kenya was the only country whereby the Government stepped forward to give athletes stipends to survive and the athletes really appreciated,” Otula said.
Tong-IL Moo-Do Federation who have been a beneficiary of the Sports Fund when it hosted an international tournament in Mombasa said through it’s president Clarence Mwakio;
“Any time any federation presents an application for funding to host an international tournament or for a team to participate in either foreign or local tournament the government has been very supportive as long as everything is in order, we have always been getting assistance to support our players as well as equipping our teams.”
On their part the Weightlifting Federation said, “People complaining are people we don’t know about, so if we are not complaining why are they complaining? they are saying sports used to be bad, we are the guys running sports, we know how it was and now it is okay and we are not complaining why are they?” John Ogolla, the Secretary General for Kenya Weightlifting Federation pointed out.
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Legendary Tegla Leroupe also raised concerns over the attack on the Sports CS saying it is uncalled for and instead all sports stakeholders should work as a team for the benefits of sportsmen and women in the country.
“A leader cannot work alone, he or she needs all of us and therefore if they say that CS Amina has not delivered, you as the sports person you are not delivering because we are a family, as sports administrators we are the ambassadors of this nation.”
The Senate also weighed into the matter with the Chairman of the Social Welfare and Sports Committee, John Sakaja said they will get the audience of CS on Thursday to further interrogate the issue.
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