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Wario hits out at sports federation bosses again


Sports Cabinet Secretary Dr Hassan Wario has blamed local stakeholders for the never ending squabbles dogging sports administrative organs in the country.

Speaking at the Moi International Sports Center, Kasarani after launching the Kenya Academy of Sports, Wario said sports federations officials should take a large part of the blame for repeatedly voting in leaders with questionable integrity.

“The leaders of all the existing federations are not appointed. They are voted in by the relevant officials so before we ask the government to take any action, we have to ask ourselves why we cannot apply wisdom when selecting our leaders,” he said.

The cabinet secretary was responding to the question of whether the government is planning to take any action to address the conflict between Kenya Football Federation and the Kenyan Premier League.

“We (the government) do not want to look like we are interfering with the affairs of the football institutions but we are monitoring the situation very closely and have notify them, along with all other federations, on how we would like things to be run,” he said.

NURTURE TALENT

The Cabinet Secretary said he will meet football officials next week to find a way of solving the differences so as to ensure that the league begins on time.

At the same time, Wario announced that the government has partnered with the National Youth Talent Academy to harness and nurture sports talent in the country.

“This country cannot move without sports because youth account for a very large percentage of our population, meaning that if we do not find a way of keeping them busy then we risk losing our future generation to crime, drugs and other vices,” he said.

The creation of the sports academy is one of the five organs of the Sports Act 2013 which requires the government to build new stadia, establish a sports tribunal to arbitrate sports disputes and to create a national sports fund.

Wario also revealed that plans to build a sports academy complex are at an advances stage, and that the facility will be launched by April this year.