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{
    "id": 71881,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/71881/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 357,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "It also came to my notice that the players were not very well motivated, especially when it came to issues of the allowances which they received before they played with Uganda Cranes. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on whether the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) and the technical staff are adequately addressing the development of soccer in the country at the national and the club level, I wish to inform the House that the KFF is not the one running the football tournaments in Kenya and even managing Harambee Stars. This is being done by Footbal Kenya Limited (FKL) which is recognized by FIFA. It is the FKL that currently runs soccer in the country. I also wish to inform the House that the FKL has not adequately addressed the issues of soccer development in the country because we are all aware that you cannot develop soccer by playing just in Nairobi. You must have a clear development plan for the youth in the rural areas so that you can develop talents and utilize them to make it to the national team. That should be done from the grassroots. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on how much the Government has spent preparing the Harambee Stars, including paying for their air tickets, accommodation and allowances, I wish to state that the Government normally undertakes this function but in this case, FKL which was responsible did not engage the Government on this undertaking. So, we did not provide anything in that case because the FKL did not engage the Government. So, we were under the impression that they must have had adequate funds to be able to undertake those activities. On the cause of poor performance by the team at the tournament, I have already indicated from the first question on some of the reasons that were there. That was poor preparation of the team. The team was not jellying because nine of the players were completely new. I have also said that you cannot just wait for players to play at the national level without a clear plan on how to develop them to be taken up by the national team. On what I intend to do for Harambee Stars in their future performance, you are aware that as a Ministry, we re-launched our sports policy which adequately addresses the issues that we need to do. We have also finalized the Sports Bill that is supposed to come to this House so that we can have legal framework on how to engage sporting federations. Because many of these federations are registered under the Societies Act and yet we have the Sports Department which was established under some legal notice, which I do not have but my technical people will give me, we think that all the issues to do with sports should now be addressed towards the Sports Department. This should apply to any sport. Many federations are engaged in things and activities that are not sportish. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at soccer in particular, you will find that the federations and the leaderships that have been involved, have spent more time quarrelling than coming up with concrete plans. Sometimes, the Ministry’s hands are tied when they say that they are private federations and are registered under the Societies Act. Therefore, my predecessors were previously taken to court to overrule some of the decisions that they had made. With the Bill which will be brought to this House, and which is ready, we will have the legal framework on how to engage sporting federations that are not engaged in sports. These are just people who are engaged in leadership wrangles which have nothing to do with sports."
}