Africa-Press – Kenya. Parliamentary Sports Committee chairman Dan Wanyama wants the government to invest heavily in Team Kenya if they are to perform to their optimum. He said a team is not about just the allowances but how you prepare before an assignment.
“If you don’t prepare a team adequately, you can as well forget about the results,” he added. The Webuye West MP said one month is not enough for a team to train and measure up to the standards being witnessed in Budapest, Hungary.
“What we are seeing here is basically personal effort and it is high time we did things in a different way. We can’t afford to do things the same way every year and expect different results,” he added.
He assured that going forward, any team going for the international championship will spend a longer period in camp. He said the government was serious about the development of sports considering that even the Sports Fund, which was initially shared with the Ministry of Health, has been pushed to sports development.
“President William Ruto himself loves and understands sports and that is why he decided to push the Sports Fund towards sports development. Initially, 60 percent of the money was going to the Ministry of Health but not anymore,” he noted.
The Parliamentary Sports Committee boss said it is not going to be business as usual and going forward, they will not just give narratives without taking action. The Webuye West MP said as an oversight committee, they will be very hard on the Ministry of Sports to ensure the right things are being done.
He said they will ensure that any athlete representing the country in whichever sport has adequate training and allowances. “Things must be done professionally and there is no two way about it,” he added.
He said the federations should plan ahead and ensure the team has all they need to perform. “They must know what the team needs and then other things can follow. They cannot be blaming the ministry even on things that do not concern them,” he noted.
Commenting on swimming, he said they need to be banned for the stakeholders to open their eyes. Wanyama said the federation must be left to run the swimming affairs in the country.
” Let us be banned so that we can put our house in order,” Wanyama noted.
He said swimmers’ parents have taken over the running of the federation and nothing seems to be working. He said if Athletics Kenya was run the way swimming is run, Kenya would not be where it is today. Wanyama also congratulated Malkia Strikers for qualifying for the Olympic Games.
He said: “Cameroon postponed the event by 10 days when Malkia Strikers were already there and I am happy the Ministry provided accommodation and other needs to ensure the team trained there ahead of the event.”
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