After resolving FKF elections, Murkomen casts his net wider
Upon being sworn into office on August 8, Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy, and Sports Kipchumba Murkomen had a full in-tray.
Kenya was under pressure to deliver venues that will stage the 2024 African Nations Championships (CHAN) from February 1 to 24, which will be crucial for Kenya’s co-hosting of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) together with Uganda and Tanzania.
CHAN, a tournament for players plying their trade in their domestic leagues, will be a dry run for 2027 Afcon. Like Africa’s premier national football team tournament Afcon, Kenya will co-host 2024 CHAN with Uganda and Tanzania, and the country is striving to get venues ready.
Then there was the matter of protracted Football Kenya Federation Elections which attracted seven candidates. It is something which came up during his vetting by the National Assembly.
“When Fifa continued interfering unreasonably in the management of football in Nigeria and Cameroon, the government deliberately tells them ‘go to hell, suspend us for two or three months, it doesn’t matter, we will organise our sports, hold elections, have accountable leadership, and we will come back to play with you. At some point you might just have to bite the bullet and take us in that direction because the mess that we see in the management of football in this country is not taking us anywhere…if it means Kenya misses out on international football,so be it, but we must get things right,” National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula told Murkomen when the soon-to-be Sports CS was being vetted by Parliament on August 3.
“The place for me to start will be sports management, in this case football. Is not right that for the last eight years, you have an organisation that has a leadership in office that has not been elected but they are there in perpetuity. And it is not just FKF. I will request that people who have served for more than eight years in any federation recuse themselves and give an opportunity to new people who have energy and vigour to be elected…,” Murkomen answered.
Weeks to FKF elections, Murkomen publicly stated his desire for new leadership at FKF and said the incumbent Nick Mwendwa was not qualified to run in any capacity. Dorris Petra, who had served as vice president to Mwendwa, sought FKF presidency in the elections, this time with Mwendwa as her deputy. They lost to Hussein Mohamed and McDonald Mariga
Having successfully overseen elections at FKF, Murkomen has set his sights on ensuring that FKF prepares teams for 2024 CHAN and 2027 Afcon, and ensuring that elections of federations that are due are held.
“We are pulling all stops to host 2024 CHAN, and we must prepare our teams well so as to put up a strong performance,’ he says.
“When we came into office, we were told that we would not manage FKF but I stood my ground and we pushed through the elections. We will only succeed if our federations are healthy. We will not rest until we ensure all federations have put in place accountable leadership,” he said on Saturday, December 14.
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya and Athletics Kenya are among the local sports bodies whose elections are due.
Athletics Kenya has not held elections in eight years owing to court battles. Murkomen has set a target for the first quarter of next year for AK elections.
The National Youth Council (NYC) will also hold its elections between February 7 and 21 next year. The body has not held elections in 12 years. Murkomen unveiled the NYC National Election Steering Committee and the National Youth Advisory Board last month.
“This should send a message to all federations who frustrate efforts to hold elections that their time is up. Good governance in our sports is not negotiable,” said Murkomen.
On December 10, Murkomen gazetted a team that will oversee Kenya’s preparations to host the 2024 CHAN and 2027 Afcon.
The other issue in his in-tray is the review of the Sports Act, and a task force is already in place for this.
But to end some of these wrangles that have been brought about by a defective Sports Policy, Murkomen has formed a 20-man task force that will provide the country with a workable Sports Policy that will help shape the country’s sports scene.
The task force appointed on November 15 chaired by former Sports Dispute Tribunal chairman, John Ohaga, has three months to harmonise the Sports Policy of 2002 and Sports Act of 2013 into one document.
Murkomen’s predecessor Ababu Namwamba had put together a team in January this year to review and align the two documents before being tabled in Parliament last July, but it had not accomplished its work.
National Olympic Committee of Kenya’s secretary general, Francis Mutuku reckons that the steps which Murkomen has taken to appoint committees to implement different aspects of sports locally could change the sports scene.
“He put in place the gender protection office and most importantly the task force to review the Sports Policy and Sports Act. In my view, the task force is the most critical one since a new policy is what the sports fraternity has clamoured for in many years. We applaud the CS for that,” said Mutuku.
Mutuku said that the Local Organising Committee for 2024 CHAN and 2027 Afcon will help jump-start Kenya’s preparations for hosting the tournaments. The LOC is headed by former Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) secretary general Nicholas Musonye.
The Gender Protection and Implementation Committee, appointed in November will help with the implementation of the 2022 Report on Gender Welfare and Equity in Sports. Murkomen will chair the committee.
Murkomen has allayed fears that activities of the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya could grind to a halt due to lack of funding as he moved to secure increased support for ADAK to uphold Kenya’s reputation in clean sports.
Early this month, the Sports ministry rolled out a National Sports Talent Camp across four regions in Kenya. The camps have more than 3,000 student-athletes, up from 1,789 in 2023. The holiday training camps ended today.
