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{
    "id": 328737,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/328737/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 440,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Namwamba",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 108,
        "legal_name": "Ababu Tawfiq Pius Namwamba",
        "slug": "ababu-namwamba"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to move that the Sports Bill, Bill No.43 of 2012 be now read a Second Time. I want to start by expressing my great pleasure and satisfaction to get the opportunity to move this Bill, a Bill that has been on the lips of virtually everybody who has interest in sports. Several of my predecessors have spoken at length about this Bill and they have expressed great interest to see this Bill enacted. Virtually all stakeholders in the sporting scene have made it absolutely clear that the enactment of a Bill that provides a broad legal framework to manage, regulate and provide guidance on how to conduct and administer sporting affairs in this country is absolutely essential. Indeed, when the history of the sporting of this country is written, it will be amazing just how a critical facet of our lives like sports has managed to operate and come this far without any clear and deliberate legal framework. Members will appreciate that this country has a great sporting tradition. It will also be appreciated that sports is a universal language. It is a language that can unite; it is a language that can help bring down barriers, negative ethnicity and all the divisions that sometimes define our relationships. When David Rudisha shattered the Olympics World Record in 800 metres in London, no single Kenyan – I believe – stopped to wonder what community or region of the country David Rudisha came from. Every Kenyan in unison rises to applaud, celebrate a great feat by a great Kenyan. When Denis Oliech scores a fantastic goal for Harambee Stars, nobody cares about his ethnicity. Everybody celebrates this great talent of a great Kenyan. Therefore, sports is a language that can unite us and it is the language that should unite us. Therefore, I take great pride to get the privilege to move that this House enacts this Bill. This Bill will provide a very specific legislative framework that will guide how we manage sporting affairs in this country. It is a Bill that in a very innovative manner has brought to the table the views and opinions of various stakeholders and offered certain ways in which sports in this country should be managed. The Bill seeks to establish institutions which will be critical in rationalizing the manner in which we manage sports affairs. Those institutions, which will serve the needs of both women and men, include the Kenya Sports Development Authority (KSDA), the National Sports Fund (NSF), the Kenya National Sports Institute (KNSI), the Registrar of Sports Organizations (RSO), as a new office; and the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDP). Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Bill provides a very clear delimitation of roles and responsibilities for all those organizations. It will be appreciated that up to now, where we are today since this country got Independence, many sporting organizations in the country have operated in a manner that has often raised a lot of friction. It should be appreciated that this Bill does not seek to, in any way, interfere with existing sporting organizations. Indeed, it will be noted from the body of the Bill and even from the Schedules in this Bill; that the Bill has not made any effort to interfere with currently constituted sporting organizations. What this Bill seeks to provide is a framework within which sporting activities can be regulated. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want the House to note that this is not a new thing, and that it is not something unique to Kenya. A study by the European Union (EU) in 2008, which covered 27of its member states, made it very clear that regulation of sporting activities by the state is absolutely important. To quote verbatim a section of that report, the EU concludes:- “In our opinion, the trend of regulation should not decrease. It should, in fact, increase in the following years. Sporting is becoming more and more important in the European way of life.”"
}