The sports docket needs to be led by former sports personalities and not politicians, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei has suggested.
The lawmaker has proposed an overhaul of the department, saying that it is dominated and managed by people who know nothing about sports.
He is also pushing for elections in all sports federations, to eliminate people who have no idea about what sportspeople are going through at work.
“We need an overhaul of the sports management in this country. Let all federations have elections. Let’s have new officials in office,” he said on Wednesday.
“We must be deliberate in this country that most of these people should be people with sports background who know the game. Why put a politician in charge of football?” he said on Spice FM.
The remarks seems aimed at Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, who has been accused of mismanaging athletics in the country.
The Kenya Kwanza senator said that politicians in the sports dockets have no motivation to fight for sportsmen, which makes them the wrong people to handle the affairs of sportspeople.
He has been bitter with Namwamba, the former Budalangi Member of Parliament, for a while, after the minister was accused of mishandling athletes and not treating them with the honour they need.
“I echo [the] sentiments of Hon. Ichungwa Majority Leader National Assembly that CS Ababu continues to mismanage into oblivion our beloved sports. How can ministry officials fly first class to Olympics Budapest, Hungary at the expense of our athletes?” he posed in an earlier tweet.
The issue was also raised by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, who claimed that the Namwamba-led ministry has ignored Kenyan athletes when they record stellar performances during international competitions.
