Africa-Press – Kenya. Busia County Executive Committee Member for Sports, Culture and Social Services Paul Olung’a has unveiled measures to fund sporting activities in the county.
Addressing participants attending the Basic Advanced FKF/CAF D football and volleyball coaching and referees’ courses at Hotel Rowcena in Busia town, the CEC said the funding will be for the 2023-2024 financial year.
“Governor Paul Otuoma is passionate about sports. It’s unfortunate the previous regime was sluggish about sports for a long time, thus the need for a paradigm shift,” said Olung’a, who was flanked by Chief Officer in the department, Xavier Panyako .
“In the forthcoming budget, the department will factor money to support various sports disciplines. We are serious in our resolve to realise this goal.”
Olung’a thanked Sports CS Ababu Namwamba and Kenya Academy of Sports for having picked Busia County as one of the recipients for the program, noting that it will help nurture sports talents in the county.
The CEC said football is the most popular sport in the county but scarcity of trained coaches had impacted negatively on the development of the sport, urging the new coaches to extend their expertise to secondary and primary schools.
He said as part of their agenda to revamp sports in the evolved unit, the department will embark on securing the Busia County Stadium after the Supplementary Budget passage. The Budget has already been tabled in the County Assembly, approved and ascended to by the Governor.
“It’s unfortunate that there is no water at the stadium which has inconvenienced players who use the facility for training and league matches. We shall strive to change this trend by availing water,” he noted.
Olung’a lauded three officials from the county, Victor Ochakala (FKF Teso North branch chairman), Salim Suleiman (team manager, football) and Solomon Itubo (Coach tug of war, county team) — who are attending the course — for their excellent performance at the recently concluded KICOSCA games in Kisumu.
“The football team performed extremely well but lady luck failed to smile on them. We might engage the same tacticians in the forthcoming Kenya Youth Inter-Counties Sports Association (KYISA) games,” he said.
“As a county government, we shall utilise coaches who will graduate in the next six days to identify U-23 players from various sub-counties to represent the county at the KYISA games.”
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
