Sort out mess in sports

The country’s sports scene is literally at a crossroads and one wonders if the ongoing review of the 2013 Sports Act will be the panacea to this crisis.

The Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports, Kipchumba Murkomen, has a tall order to intervene in most cases where his predecessors Hassan Wario, Rashid Echesa, Amina Mohammed and Ababu Namwamba failed to crack.

Over the years, court cases, failed elections, corruption cases and power struggles have been the order of the day in football, athletics, swimming, cricket, badminton, golf, motorsports, rugby and volleyball just to mention but a few.

Football, which is the most popular sport in the country, has had its share of trouble and the peak of things is the national team Harambee Stars playing its 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches in foreign countries due to lack of certified venues in the country.

Amina Mohamed disbanded Football Federation of Kenya (FKF) in November, 2021 over graft and a Caretaker Committee headed by retired judge Aaron Ringera was put in place.

World football governing body Fifa moved swiftly to ban Kenya on February 24, 2022 but rescinded the decision after the new CS Namwamba reinstated the FKF office on November 4, 2022.

There has been push-and-pull over the FKF elections, which were due for February this year but deferred to October this year before being pushed to February next year.

Athletics Kenya have not held elections for the last eight years after some of its members went to court challenging its constitution review.

World Aquatics lifted the ban on Kenya Aquatics after six years after a new team was elected in October last year but some stakeholders have gone to court.

Elections have been held in cricket and rugby but a power struggle between officials still persists.

Murkomen ought to put in more fire to the review of the 2013 Sports Act .