Trouble for Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba rages on as National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Shollei grills him on his ministry’s mismanagement.
This comes after Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah proposed summoning Namwamba for accountability on August 17, expressing dissatisfaction with how the ministry has ignored Kenyan athletes.
Speaking in an interview at Citizen TV, Shollei alluded to Namwamba’s ministry’s decadence while supporting Ichung’wah’s proposal.
Shollei claims she even hosted Boston and London marathon champions after the ministry failed to give them a proper welcome upon their return.
“I am happy that this was raised. Coming from Uasin Gishu where most athletes come from it’s very painful, I listen to them. Every time they have landed they have come to my home here in Kitusuru because the CS is not bothered,” she said.
“I’ve hosted them for breakfast, lunch and talked about their challenges and they tell me their horror stories. They fly economy, the ministry officials are flying business class and first class, sometimes they have a layover of 14 hours.”
The Uasin Gishu Woman representative also revealed that the recently launched Talanta Hela app, which was intended to promote youth creativity and talents, has been a white elephant because it is nowhere to be found.
She also stated that the ministry has been providing some teams with knockoff uniforms to wear during international games, despite the fact that the ministry is funded.
“Seeing the management of sports at the moment is painful. As late as yesterday I looked for the Talanta Hela app [and] it doesn’t exist. They told us it was launched,” she said.
“The other day when our team went to Tunisia for the beach games they were wearing fake sports uniforms, knockoffs from Riveroad. If you look at the team that went to Trinidad and Tobago they were also wearing fake uniforms. It just asks you by the time a country reaches a point where our athletes are wearing fake uniforms there is really something wrong.”
Shollei further lifted the lid on the rampant cases of doping linked to Kenyan athletes, noting that the amount of exploitation in training camps is appalling and coaches together with relevant authorities are involved.
“The coaches who issue these drugs are known. Why is it that they have not been arrested? None of those young people know about doping they can hardly buy food or shoes so it’s usually the coaches or people around them providing these drugs lying to them that it is supplements,” she stated.
Shollei claims that the aforementioned issues are among many that she intends to raise when CS Namwamba appears before Parliament for questioning.
While addressing the House, Ichung’wah described CS Namwamba’s leadership as a failure because he has been unable to manage Kenya’s athletes and is instead wallowing in the government’s privileges.
“The best representation we should see are those stadia are our ministers not carrying joyriders on trips abroad to accompany them and doing nothing,” he said.
“You were made a minister to serve the people and if you are made the minister of sports you must serve sportsmen and women of our country and it’s indeed extremely sad that such good ambassadors can leave our country without due recognition by the ministry in charge of that responsibility.”
