formed by the sports secretaries from the 47 counties in the country .
Kenya Kwanza had quick points noting the need to establish a sporting heroes benevolent fund , expanding the National Youth Talent Academy and devolving this function to the counties , promoting county leagues and inter-county sports championships . An interesting one is the formation of a task force to identify sources of sports funding .
From a policy perspective , each of the coalitions has a point or two which would be game changers if implemented to completion . However , we have historically experienced far too many promises and few actions in the world of sport .
This year alone , we have seen national sports teams struggling with preparations and having to fundraise to secure participation and monies for logistical support . It is worse when we have disciplines such as rugby and basketball , which have a fairly good following struggling to meet their club ’ s obligations .
In matters of governance , Kenyans have to put their sports officials to task on what happens when national teams are representing the country in international competitions . In July , we had athletes almost missing the World Athletics championships because of poor travel arrangements , while officials had already arrived in Oregon ahead of the team . Worse still , Kenya could only collect 2 Gold , 5 Silver and 3 Bronze medals , our worst outing since 2005 in Helsinki .
Just before the championships started , Kenya had lost the bid to host the 2025 event to eventual hosts - Japan , again owing to poor infrastructure and nonchalance of sports officials to the submitted bid .
Looking at team sports - basketball , the Kenya Morans were due for national duty at Cairo , Egypt , to qualify for the FIBA World Cup coming up in 2023 . A hastily assembled team , lack of early preparations , financial challenges and overall poor management contributed to 3 losses knocking Kenya out of the qualifiers . After an impressive performance in 2021 at the Afrobasket championships which offered a glimmer of hope to the game , we are back to where we started from . I will not even mention the national basketball league and falling infrastructure that ’ s our basketball courts and training grounds .
On to rugby , which traditionally had become one sport discipline without financial challenges . There has been a start-stop situation since the Covid-19 pandemic hit this part of the world in 2020 . However , beyond that , clubs at the national level have struggled to secure funding and sponsorship from local corporates . Enter the World Cup qualifiers - playing against Namibia - just like the basket ballers , the team almost missed the games due to lack of funds . On securing some sponsorship , preparations were not adequate enough to get the team ready . And once again , Kenya misses out on the Rugby World Cup 2023 .
Mismatch of investment priorities
What is interesting , like I have mentioned above , is the skewed investment and lack of consistency of the Government . A good example is the weekend of the Kip Keino Classic , which enjoyed huge government support and coverage from local sports
media houses . We could even afford to fly in a few athletes , such as multiple world champion Shelly Ann-Fraser , Olympic champion French sprinter Marcell Jacobs and US sprinter Fred Kersey .
Interestingly , on the same weekend , we had the launch of the Expressway with the Nairobi City Marathon . The prize money for the marathon was KSh . 6.9 million ( approximately $ 60,000 ) making it one of the highest paying marathons in the world . For comparison , the London marathon stands at KSh . 5.5 million , Berlin - 5 million and Tokyo at 1.5 million .
While it has a feel-good factor in bringing the world to the country , the missed opportunities of investing in local events and infrastructure are a mismatch .
Last I checked , the Nyayo National Stadium renovation works ( where the City marathon was flagged off ) were yet to be completed . The same is the case for Kasarani , which are our two main stadiums .
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