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The government has paid Shs.1.6 billion to secure the rights to host the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN).
Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya noted that this is the requisite fee that is paid to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
He said the payment is the confirmation of the government’s commitment to hosting the championship in August this year.
“The government is committed to meeting the financial obligations to CAF to guarantee eligibility as hosts. To this end, a payment of Shs.1.6 billion was made to CAF as per the terms agreed that were on,” said Mvurya.
While appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Sports and Culture that is chaired by Dan Wanyama, the CS said payment of the funds was a major step towards preparations for the football bonanza.
He told the Committee that the funds were paid directly from the National Treasury.
The Ministry had failed to secure the funds from the supplementary budget.
The CS told the MPs that preparations by the government to co-host the AFCON with Uganda and Tanzania were on course.
He noted that successful hosting of CHAN will pave the way for the smooth staging of the AFCON.
“These tournaments represent a historic milestone for Kenya, demonstrating our commitment to sports excellence, infrastructural development and advancement of Kenya in the continental football space,” he said.
He added: “To achieve these goal, the government has adopted a multi-sectoral approach to excite a successful event by involving key stakeholders such as the Kenya Football Federation (FKF), Ministries of Defence, Interior, Tourism and Diaspora alongside sector partners.”
He noted that construction works on the key stadiums set to be used for CHAN and AFCON was progressing on well.
He explained that the Talanta Sports City and Moi Sports Centre Kasarani will be used for the championship.
Nyayo, Ulinzi and Police Sacco stadiums are earmarks as venues for training for teams featuring in CHAN.
He added that CHAN Local Organising Committee composing of professionals from sports administration, events management, security and media among others will push for actualisation of the dream to host the championships.
FKF president Mr Hussein Mohammed who seperatley appeared before the Committee said the new team was undertaking reforms in the football body aimed at breathing a new life into the sector.
He explained that the Federation has contacted relevant institutions to conduct a forensic audit of the Shs.400 million pending bills they inherited from their predecessor.
This after the MPs led by Caroli Omondi (Suba South), Robert Basil (Yatta) and Stephen Mule ( Matungulu) demanded to know the action FKF will take to deal with financial mismanagement by the previous regime.
“Are you going to forgive and forget or you will deal with people who swindled funds meant to support football development,” posed Omondi.
Said Mule: “How long will it take you to pay the pending bills left by the former boss…service providers are suffering due to delay in settling their debts.
In response, Hussein said they have recommended for forensic audit to determine the eligibility of some of the pending bills before paying.
Hussein called for amendment of the penal code to include criminalizing if match fixing as a measure aimed at dealing with the vice.
He added that the rules the federation was relying on to punish those found to engage in match manipulation were too weak.
“Our role as FKF is only to suspend a player or official found to engage in mst h fixing…this alone does not scare those thinking of practicing the vice,” he told the Committee.
He added that this was the short cut to having a permanent solution to ending match fixing in the country.
To promote football at the grassroots level, Hussein noted that plans were underway to launch a sub county leagues across the country.
He added that the sub counties would be used as centres for youth football development.
