Africa-Press – Kenya. Sports Principal Secretary-designate Jonathan Mueke has outlined his vision for the country if he is approved by parliament to take up the role.
During a vetting session with the Parliamentary Committee on Sports in Nairobi on Wednesday, Mueke addressed many issues, including doping, infrastructure, and talent development.
Part of his immediate agenda will be to launch an international campaign to remove the negative image that has plagued the country in recent months.
“We will conduct a massive communication exercise to show the world that the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Kenya is not funded by the government,” Mueke said.
“It has to be a global campaign because our athletes are the biggest brand we have and it will be very sad if we are banned from international competitions.”
Mueke said he plans to work closely with key stakeholders to achieve his targets.
“There is no way we are going to develop sports in our country if we don’t work closely with the stakeholders,” Mueke said.
“One of the major stakeholders in sports is the National Assembly. I intend to work together with the parliamentary committee on sports to ensure that we pass policies that promote and develop our sports, to work on enough budgetary allocation to help meet our objectives, and to strategise on our programs.”
The country will do a lot to promote itself as a sports destination, he said.
“To do that, we will need to build infrastructure that will attract international gains. We’ll need to do a lot of communication to make sports visible and highlight our sporting prowess.
“We’ll go around the world to benchmark with the countries so that we can build on what others have done so well and make ourselves very attractive.”
He said they will develop new laws and amend the existing ones that are already outdated or no longer serve the purpose they were intended for.
Mueke said putting such measures in place will help them regulate and govern the sporting industry.
To increase Kenya’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup in the future, Mueke emphasized the need to establish efficient grassroots structures.
“Kenya is traditionally a sporting nation and we have a lot of untapped potential.
“One of the opportunities we have is discovering talent from a very young age. Today, sports are an extracurricular activity in schools and I look forward to working with the Ministry of Education to see if we can bring back sports to be a part of the curriculum activities.”
He observed that a lot of Kenyan schools have fields that are not developed to be sports grounds.
“So you find that our children are not able to take part in sporting events because most of the grounds and infrastructure belong to private member clubs.”
He said they will work with Sports Kenya and the Ministry of Education to make sure that they build infrastructure in local schools.
“Talent development is also going to be a big part of our agenda. We will fund the Kenya Academy of Sports to ensure that they go to the constituencies and wards, especially in schools to organise sporting activities.
“This will help us to identify, nurture, and develop the talent of young people right from primary schools to secondary schools. We just need to create that funnel from the grassroots right into our national teams.”
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
