The government only funds teams and individual athletes for regional, continental and global championships whose calendars are well established.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports Head of Communications, Juney Karisa, says that to attract funding, one has to meet the Funding Requirement Criteria of the ministry.
First, the teams and individual athletes must go through their respective sports federations while registered professional athletes can request funding directly from the ministry.
The federations and professional athletes can then write to the technical office at the Department of Sports and provide invitation letters to the championships, the date of the championships, an estimated budget, and travel documents.
The Technical Committee then forwards the requests to the Director of Sports, who reviews them with Liaison Officers attached to each sports federation.
If found genuine, the Director of Sports will forward the request to the Budget Committee, where recommendations and reviews are made before the request is returned to the Director of Sports, who forwards it to the accounting officer, who is the Principal Secretary, for approval or further review.
Kevin Kiarie narrates his journey to skating stardom
Another requirement is that events considered for funding must be regional, continental, and global, such as the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games.
“The ministry only deals with budgetary requests from the sports federations where their events are documented in their calendar. Anything outside that is not considered,” said Karisa.
Karisa said that registered professional athletes are also considered for funding so long as the events are genuine and are well recognised continentally and globally.
“We also consult with their respective federations for clarification before clearing these professional athletes," said Karisa.
He said some events have no federations or local competitions and the ministry takes a dim view of them.
“We can’t fund athletes to some nondescript events which their respective federations don’t know about,” said Karisa.
Karisa noted that it was difficult to fund skater Kelvin Kiarie because the Skating Federation had existed for only six months before going dormant after leadership wrangling.
Kenyan freestyle skater Kevin Kiarie at the 2025 Inline Freestyle World Championship held in Singapore in December 2025.
Photo credit: Pool
“We still considered his case to pay for his participation fee in the continental championship. He even wanted to be rewarded at rates we give for global events yet he won at continental level,’ said Karisa.
The government gifted Kiarie Sh800,000 for his victory at the Africa Skating Championships in Egypt in line with its reward scheme. Winning a world championship title would have entitled him to a Sh3 million reward according to the scheme.
The Technical Committee, which meets once weekly, reviews the request. Successful applicants get their money when funds become available.
