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{
    "id": 1280274,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1280274/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 314,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "The Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports and the Arts (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Ababu Namwamba): Hon. Temporary Speaker, I can confirm to Hon. Muhia that with the little glitches that have already been settled by the Principal Secretary and the Fund, I believe that in no more than a week, the funds should be in the accounts of the athletes. May I now go to the Question on aquatic sports? I want from the outset to indicate to this House that the state of swimming in this country is symptomatic. It is a microcosm of the challenges in federations that I have repeatedly alluded to. For a long time, federations have not been ready to respect the law of this country and they have been reluctant to be accountable. We have a law in this country called the Sports Act. It was put in place to regulate the arena of sports. This law was enacted in 2013 when I was the Minister for Sports in the coalition Government. I stood on this Floor as both the Minister for Sports and the Member of Parliament for Budalang’i to move the Sports Bill for enactment. We have had serious challenges in the intervening period in enforcement of that statute. Today, what ails Kenya aquatics? The issue here is failure to comply with the law and regulations. Most importantly is that, as we speak today, the Kenya Swimming Federation is embroiled in a legal tussle. It is a case that has moved from the Sports Tribunal to the High Court. It is now filed as the Nairobi High Court Petition No. E08 of 2021: Margret NgunguMwasha and another versus the Kenya Swimming Federation and three others . Two factions of this federation have gone to court. The bone of contention is who should be in control of this federation and how should elections of this federation be conducted. One faction is clinging on to a constitution that they produced. The other faction is insisting that things have to be done differently. This has caused a major stalemate. I want to confirm to this honourable House that we have made efforts to intervene on this matter by engaging directly with World Aquatics. This House needs to take notice of one major issue when it comes to dealing with international federations. They are very protective of their turf and affiliates. If you touch their affiliate, they will tell you that that is Government interference. We have been tussling with World Aquatics to allow the Government to exercise the law, specifically the mandate in Section 54 of the Sports Act. Section 54 of the Sports Act allows the Cabinet Secretary to make an intervention in the management of a federation. We have gone back and forth with World Aquatics because they feel that if we deploy Section 54 of the Sports Act, they will pretty much walk out of Kenya and completely freeze us out of international swimming activities."
}