Sports and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has defended his record and dismissed the removal of the Arts role from his docket as an indictment of his performance.
Ababu, who has in the recent past faced criticism from sections of the ruling party with calls for him to resign, said he believes he is among the best performing Cabinet Secretaries.
"We live in a political environment so you will not be immune to political shenanigans. What is important for me is that I have no doubt that I am among President William Ruto’s best performing Cabinet Secretaries. I know my capabilities. I know where I found this ministry. I know where this ministry is right now,” Ababu told the Star in an interview in Beijing, China, where he was on official visit.
He said it would be wrong to consider the opinion of some ruling party officials as the party position on his performance.
"It is erroneous to take the statement of one or two people and escalate those sentiments to the party. For example, there is a senator [Samson Cherargei, Nandi] who has gone public and indicated that he wants the term limit to be extended, would you really say that since the senator belongs to that party, it is the view of the party?" the CS said.
Ababu faced criticism from Majority Leader in the National Assembly Kimani Ichungw'ah, Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss-Shollei, Nandi Senator Cherargei and Kipipiri MP Wanjiku Muhia, among others.
Ichung’wah said it was sad that athletes came into the country and were not recognised as they deserve.
Shollei questioned his leadership credentials, saying she was forced to host champions from the Boston and London marathons after the ministry failed to accord them a decent reception upon their return.
"Coming from Uasin Gishu where most athletes come from it's very painful. I listen to them. Every time they have landed they have come to my home in Kitusuru because the CS is not bothered," she said.
Cherargei backed the Majority Leader saying on X, "I echo [the] sentiments of Hon Ichung'wah, Majority Leader National Assembly, that CS Ababu continues to mismanage into oblivion our beloved sports. How can ministry officials fly first class with their girlfriends to Olympics Budapest, Hungary, at the expense of our athletes?
"Our female athletes are being exploited sexually and economically! Parliament must summon CS Sports to avert disastrous mismanagement of our sports!"
Last month, Cherargei once again hit out at Ababu for not acting on an incident in Argentina where a Kenyan athlete was attacked by a dog during the Buenos Aires Marathon on September 24.
“Marathoner Robert Kimutai Ng'eno was attacked by a dog in Argentina during a marathon event last Sunday where he secured third position.
“Unfortunately, the incompetent CS Ababu of Sports and lethargic Athletics Kenya has NOT found it wise to protest and call for investigations by Argentina authorities!” he wrote on X.
But the CS maintains his record at the ministry speaks for itself, and had he not been a performer, the President would have reshuffled or dropped him in the recent Cabinet changes.
"There have been occasions where MPs take issue with ministries – Energy, Economic Advisory Council of the president, which is normal. Parliament, constitutionally speaking, is an oversight organ, and ought to do so for real or imagined reasons,” he said.
"Today, 10 months down the line, there was no football to talk about in Kenya. Football was frozen because of the Fifa suspension. A fast 11 months down the line, counties are now fighting about who should host AFCON. I love that fight because it means that football is back, and people are getting into the groove of football,” he said.
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda won a joint bid to host the Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2027, which among other successes Ababu highlights, is a demonstration of his leadership at the ministry.
"By any metric, from whatever angle you look at it, by whatever measure you apply, whatever yardstick, I am a performing Cabinet Secretary. If I was not performing, the President has just had an opportunity to shuffle his Cabinet and I am sure if I was not performing, he would have applied three options – mambo yalikuwa matatu - either to keep me performing or to switch me or to drop me,” he said.
However, Ababu lost the Arts function to the new Ministry of Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage.
He termed it is normal restructuring of government through the President's wisdom.
"The President saw it fit to constitute a new ministry. The Ministry of Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage is an entirely new ministry. How was he going to create that ministry other than by picking a few pieces here and there?” he posed, adding that it is also for purposes of coherence because the Arts and Culture belong together.
"Consolidating them together is a natural thing for coherence and order. At the end of day, the appointing authority has the prerogative to formulate government as he considers it fit in realising his agenda and his vision for the country,” he said.
Ababu is serving his second stint as Sports minister after his first stint during the Grand Coalition government.
He also spoke at length on his trip to China and Afcon preparations.
What brings you to China?
The essence of my visit was to explore areas of cooperation – the arts, culture, tourism, sports and people-to-people diplomacy. We had cordial and fruitful talks in Nairobi. We signed an MoU on how to advance cooperation in all those areas and we agreed we will start by taking off activities to advance the agreement. Oftentimes, MoUs start and end with the signing ceremony, after which people tend to forget about them. We want this to be alive, and we want to start activating elements of that MoU.
What areas of cooperation did you discuss?
This week, the autonomous region of Zhejiang was hosting the Trans-Himalayan forum on international cooperation.
This was a good forum for us to get our cultural cooperation up and running. We had agreed with [Culture and Tourism] Minister Hu Heping that I’d do a follow-up visit to firm up some of the areas of cooperation, which we have done in our follow-up talks.
We were also to extend this conversation to sports cooperation. The Chinese admire the Kenya middle and long-distance running a lot. The one question they have been asking, including this evening, is, 'What’s the secret of Kenyans doing what they do – like in Latvia, winning pretty much every gold medal on offer?'
Among the things we are exploring is to use our high-altitude training areas as tourism attractions. We want Chinese –either for competition or leisure – to come and visit Kamariny, Eldoret, Iten, Kaptagat forest and even the mountain region – Embu, Meru, Nyeri. I see that as an area that could also grow our tourism numbers.
We are also looking at extending this conversation to the national sports administration, which is their Ministry for Sports. So, I came to China to make sure the MoU we signed is up and running so that we can start doing substantive things together.
His Excellency the President will be here in about 10 days for the Belt and Road Initiative Forum. We are very happy that Kenya is among very few countries from around the world – actually one of three in Africa - that have been invited to the BRI forum. An official visit by President Ruto to China really sends a strong signal that we consider China to be an important partner, a key development cooperation friend and partner.
Kenya has signed and continues to sign many others but there is the issue of implementation, with very many pending – including in sports. What is the challenge in implementing these MoUs?
The challenge with a lot of instruments of cooperation that we sign is implementation. Often, we are very eager to put pen to paper and executing all sorts of instruments, but we don’t follow up. An example is an MoU between Kenya and Cuba, which was signed in 2018. When I came to the Ministry of Sports, I picked it out. It provides an opportunity for Cuban athletes to train in Kenya – in sporting disciplines where Kenya is strong, which for me is a platform to grow sports tourism, and provides a route for Kenyan sportsmen and sportswomen to train in Cuba in disciplines where Cuba is stronger – like amateur boxing, volleyball and so on. I contacted the Cuban ambassador, and we activated it.
This year, we sent 12 boxers to Cuba, they trained as part of their Olympics qualifier and the Cubans were like they have been waiting for this since 2018. We have also taken up MoUs with India, Brazil, Serbia – the programme we had in Belgrade the other day is an old MoU that we had not activated. The secret of drawing the benefits of MoUs is to make sure we implement them. That takes proactivity; you need ministries to be proactive to know what exactly is on the file and to know that if you sign something, start implementing it right away – like we are doing with what we signed with China.
It also means ministries and departments of government have to remain wired to our foreign missions. Our foreign missions should be able to be in touch with our ministries, but it takes the ministries to take the initiative to let the missions know what MoU is in place and should be implemented.
How prepared are we to host Afccon 2027 and when will the works at Kasarani, Nyayo and Kip Keino stadiums start?
We are extremely proud of clinching the rights to host AFCON jointly with Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya has desired to host this African showbiz for a long time. We got a shot in 1996, played around with it and lost it to South Africa. We are very prepared. We have a very good plan. It is on the basis of this very impressive plan that the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football awarded us the rights to host this tournament.
Our plan is broad-based, comprehensive and all encompassing. It includes the overhaul of our sports infrastructure. We cannot hide the fact that our sports infrastructure is in tatters – total tatters. We have not invested in our sports infrastructure for eon years. The last time we invested anything serious in infrastructure sport-wise is 30 years ago. Nyayo Stadium in 1983 and Kasarani in 1987. It is about time we made serious investment, and we are ready to do that.
We have redesigned Kasarani, Nyayo, and Kip Keino stadiums and we have put together a concept for a new stadium – the Talanta Sports City - which is going to be East Africa’s first only football customised stadium without a racing track. It will be a 60,000-seater. We are happy the Cabinet has approved these plans, and we are good to go.
We have gone into partnership with the Kenya Defence Forces in terms of execution and supervision. I know that our partner states are equally ready. We have a joint team led by the three ministers of sports of the three countries and I can assure Kenyans and the people of East Africa that we are going to put on a show like has never been seen in the continent.
When is the construction going to begin, specifically for Nyayo, Kasarani and Kip Keino?
We expect the work on all these facilities to start by the end of this month. I personally handed the sites to the Ministry of Defence. The Cabinet cleared the matter in our last meeting. The next level is now for the actual work to start. The designs were prepared by the Sports ministry, working together with the University of Nairobi Enterprise Services as our consultant. We know that once KDF sits down to start the actual work, and we have handed the plans to them – they make some alterations, which is normal in engineering, we expect that by November they should have hit the road running. We have a deadline of 2025, CAF will be knocking on our door to inspect the infrastructure for preparedness and we expect to be ready by then.
There was a lot of criticism by President Ruto on the involvement of the military in civilian projects. What is informing the policy where we’ll be involving the military in the construction of these stadia?
On the role of KDF, I was part of the President’s imagining of where Kenya should be. I was part of the team that put together The Plan – the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, which we have accelerated to the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda. I know that the issue was never about KDF playing a role in national development. KDF is part of the Kenyan social fabric. World over, the military always plays a role in national development. The criticism was about the style, or approach of their involvement.
We never heard of a programme of this nature going to the Cabinet for approval. The Cabinet is the highest decision-making organ of the government and if you are going to have a policy where KDF are going to be involved, you must subject that decision to the Cabinet.
Before we started this process, I wrote a letter to the Head of Public Service to indicate we wanted to do this process, we are pressed for time and we are keen on efficiency, attention to detail, cost-effectiveness and we were seeking guidance on whether we could use whole of government approach to deliver this programme.
The Head of Public Service guided, and we took the matter to Cabinet, and Cabinet has discussed the matter and the same is in the public domain and is subject to public scrutiny as you are doing now as member of the Fourth Estate – you can critique, question it…that was not done before. That approach is what we felt was not right, that if you going to engage KDF on any matter of public interest, do it openly and in a manner that is transparent and accountable. It was the style, not the form.
How are we handling the competing interests among the EAC member states in hosting AFCON?
We are partner states. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are the founding members of the world’s oldest regional integration effort.
As a community, we have a rich heritage and history of doing things together. We put together a profound, remarkable, convincing bid – the East Africa Pamoja Bid. It was a winning bid because we presented a common front. We believe this is not just about hosting a football tournament but a platform to strengthen the bonds of East African integration.
Through hosting AFCON together, we will increase cross-border movement. We will actually strengthen the East African passport. This is an opportunity to implement the long-held dream of East African tourist visa where you have one entry visa for the whole bloc. It is an opportunity to roll out shared tourism packages, so that you can come to East Africa, do Serengeti, the Mara, Mt Ruwenzori, Zanzibar, Diani, and that whole ecosystem. We should not look at this merely as a football tournament but as an opportunity to market East Africa as a package. It is not just about the three countries. We are inviting Rwanda, DR Congo, Burundi, and South Sudan to be part of this. We want it to be a celebration of our oneness as the EAC bloc, 300 million people.
I don’t expect any challenge. People are asking who will host the opening ceremony, the final, the draw and the headquarters. I can assure you we will agree, just the way we agreed to put forward a joint bid. We will agree to share those responsibilities.
So will Kenya host the opening ceremony, finals?
We are going to agree. The good thing is that we have a working formula. We have a common platform – co-chaired by the ministers of the three countries. We have meetings in the three capitals. We will sit down, assess the capabilities of every capital and at the end of the day, this being a CAF event, they will make the final call, on the basis of many metrics. We believe that based on the metrics, we will make decisions on who is capable of doing what and where. At the end of the day, we want a successful tournament that paints East Africa in the best light possible, and one that markets our region to the world.
We have international matches slated as early as March 2024. Where will Harambee Stars play and is the government considering any incentives during the Afcon?
Incentives is one area we have done very well on. In the last 10 or so months, we have put in place a very impressive incentives framework that has seen us reward our sportsmen and women like has never been done before. You saw Faith Kipyegon break the world record arrive at home and received Sh11 million - Sh5 million in cash and Sh6 million in a house; Omanyala, Mary Moraa, our Shujaa Sevens, and Malkia Strikers. All these teams have been rewarded handsomely in the context of our new reward scheme. We will be using these schemes to motivate our men and women across all the disciplines including the team that we are going to put together to compete for Afcon.
We don’t want Harambee Stars to be just a participant in the games but compete in the tournament. In terms of the venues, once we close down the main venues, we have identified alternative venues.
We have identified Ulinzi Sports Complex as an alternative venue, Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu as an alternative and we are going to put them in a condition where they can host international games when Nyayo, Kasarani and Kip Keino are undergoing upgrades for Afcon.
Any incentives for football fans?
When Afcon comes to town, it is going to be a carnival, a celebration of football and Kenyans can look forward to some sweeteners to get you to the game.
China has been in cooperation with Kenya for years. Will we have some elements in terms of the preparation for the stadia?
For this particular project, we are doing this in-house. We have put together a plan which we believe we have the capacity to handle as a country. As far as sports is concerned, we are definitely exploring a lot of areas of cooperation between Kenya and China.