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"id": 1556312,
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"content": "BILL"
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"content": "Second Reading"
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"content": "THE SPORTS (AMENDMENT) BILL (SENATE BILLS NO.33 OF 2024)"
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"id": 1556315,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker. I beg to move that the Sports (Amendment) Bill (Senate Bill No.33 of 2024) be now read a Second Time. As a Senator of Nairobi City County, I receive a lot of guests in my office. There is a gentleman called Ronald Khainga who is the Secretary of the Nairobi County Boxing Association. The first time he came to my office, he had been invited for a tournament in Vihiga. I think this was sometime in late 2023. A few months later, he came back to my office. The reason he came for the first time was to request for assistance for the association to be able to meet the expenses of travelling to Vihiga for the entire team, accommodation and upkeep of the boxing association whilst in Vihiga. I gave him what I thought was sufficient and what I had to sustain the team. He came back a second time. This time round, he wrote me a letter in July, 2024. They were going for the National Boxing League, which was to take place in Mombasa from the 13th to 17th August, 2024. He once again came to my office to request for financial support for the team to be able to attend that National Boxing League. I am holding the letter that he sent me. He had given a proposed budget year for the Nairobi County Boxing Team, including things like transport, accommodation for four nights and meals. The total was about Kshs117,000. This time round, I told him that I was not going to support the team because I could not fathom the spectre of county-registered associations who go to represent our counties in regular leagues, having no support whatsoever from the county government. In fact, because ODM is a majority in the County Assembly of Nairobi, I called the Majority Leader, I called the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Hon. Odalo, I called the Majority Whip and I also called the Speaker, Hon. Ken Ngondi. I asked them if it was true that if they looked at the budget for Nairobi County, there is not a single line of funding that goes to registered sporting associations in the county. So, I could not believe it. Following those discussions, we agreed that something needed to be done. We agreed that because sports is important because a lot of talent is nurtured through this registered sporting association, we needed to do something. This amendment is a very simple one. I am hoping that we will take the shortest possible time because, as Senators in this House, all of us understand exactly what this problem is. If you speak to colleagues from other counties, you will be surprised. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services, Senate."
},
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"id": 1556316,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
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"content": "I have not met Senators who confirmed to me that their county governments actually allocate money to support registered sports associations in their counties. So, what we did then, we agreed that we were going to bring an amendment to the Sports Act to make sure or to mandate counties to set aside a minimum amount of money every single financial year to support registered county sporting associations. That is exactly what this Bill seeks to do. You will remember, just by way of background, we had a sports fund that had been set up. We had a sports fund under the Public Finance Management Act called the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund. In fact, the aim of that Fund was to support development of grassroots sporting infrastructure and setting up of sporting academies in all our constituencies. Unfortunately, immediately the powers that be started seeing how much money was coming to that Fund, amendments were made to the Sports Fund to now include utilisation of the money in the process of the Fund, 60 per cent of the Fund went to what they called social development, including universal health care. I believe that is where the rain started beating us because immediately, you divert funds meant for the arts and sports, we end up messing sports in this county. We all know 60 per cent means that we have a very insufficient funding for sporting activities. Now, what we want to achieve with this Bill is to fund the basic activities of these sporting associations. It is very simple; the Nairobi County Boxing Association cannot be walking with a begging bowl to the offices of Senators, Members of Parliament and MCAs to ask for Kshs117,000 every time they have a tournament to attend. Due to the importance of sports, we have proposed in this particular Bill to start with a very low figure. If you look at Clause 55(4)(c), you will see that the object of the Fund is to provide funds to support registered county sporting associations. Clause 54(b) says- “There shall be paid into the county sports associations fund one per cent of all monies paid into the county revenue fund.” That means one per cent. I will give you the example of Nairobi. This House sends Kshs20 billion to Nairobi as equitable share. We want one per cent of that amount to be set aside for this special fund to support sporting activities. It is not a lot of money, but it is also not nothing. Money that is received as own source revenue is also supposed to be swept into the county revenue fund. We have also provided for loans, grants or donations from the national Government or international agencies for purposes of supporting county sports associations. I can assure you that for as long as there is a legal framework and a fund which is ring-fenced to supporting the activities of registered sporting associations in the counties, we will have a lot of support, even from international organizations. We have seen in the additional allocations Bill, various international agencies that are interested in specific areas, be it health or slum upgrading, will come through for these counties to support those specific ones. We had the occasion to undertake public participation on this particular Bill in Nairobi. I was very impressed by the turnout before the Committee of Labour and Social Welfare. At that particular time, it was chaired by the Hon. Julius Murgor. We received a number of delegations, some of whom we did not even know existed. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there was the athletic stakeholders who came before that Committee. We have the football stakeholders. Of course, the boxing stakeholders came. They were the original reason we brought this amendment. There were also stakeholders from Nairobi Skating Association, Judo, Volleyball, Parasports, a sport called Tchouk ball, which we did not The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1556317,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
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"content": "even know, until that particular day. We even had somebody representing American Football. So, it was quite an eye-opener. I want to assure everyone who appeared before the Committee that we took note of the contributions that they had presented before us. We will be presenting certain amendments during the Committee of the Whole of this Bill, so that we capture the intent and the spirit of this Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when you look at the clauses on the object of the fund, during publication, we had included financing the development of sports facilities including stadia, gymnasiums, buildings and tracks at Clause 54(c) and (d). At the Third Reading, we will be striking out any reference to infrastructural development. This is because as I have said, one per cent of what goes to counties is not sufficient to do any serious sporting infrastructure like stadia. We want this to be clear that it is only financing the operations of registered sporting associations. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have provided for an administrator of the Fund who we have designated as the CEC, responsible for sports in all the counties. They are the ones who are supposed to supervise and control administration of the fund. We have also provided for eligibility criteria. It is not for everyone. There was a worry, especially from the county governments, that if you set aside money, you will have all sorts of people claiming to be representatives of various sports coming up and saying, oh, we are the ones who are supposed to secure funding. Clause 54(e) says that for you to be eligible to apply for funding, you have to be first registered as a county sports association under the Sports Act. There was a very interesting conversation during public participation hearings on this Bill. If you look at the Sports Act, it provides for registration of national and county sporting associations. However, there is only one sports registrar and it is a national office. One of the proposals we will be making is that we also need to devolve. Looking at the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, sports is a county function. It is a devolved function. There is no reason for having a sports registrar at the national level to deal with a devolved function. We will be proposing that each county must have its own sports registrar so that they register the county sporting associations there. Those are the only people who will be eligible for funding under the Act. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, one will be required as a registered sporting association in the county to have an annual work plan aligned to the strategic plan of the association. We will have other criteria as will be set by the CECM and the Board. It provides that every 30th of August of each year, the fund administrator, who is the CECM, will issue a budget circular for the Fund to the eligible persons, indicating the ceilings for funding under sports and sports development, priority programmes, projects and activities to be funded in the financial year. When one makes an application, we have provided that they have to submit certain documents. Number one, you have to show us a certificate of registration issued under the Sports Act. Third, in addition, an annual work plan aligned to the strategic plan of the association. A statutory declaration of the programmes to be funded through other sources. Also to be submitted are details of the bank account and signatories and so on and so forth. Every recipient of funding under this programme or under this Fund, shall submit quarterly and annual progress reports of the programmes, projects, activities funded by the Fund and also allow monitoring and evaluation of the programmes, projects and activities of the fund. If you do not utilize any amount of money that has been given to you in a particular financial year, you will be required to return the unutilized funds. We believe and we were told during public participation The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services, Senate."
},
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"id": 1556318,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
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"content": "that we need to strengthen some of the monitoring and evaluation criteria that we have provided for under the Act. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I do not want to go further than that. As I said, it is a straightforward amendment. We are hoping that we can convince Members, because I know many here are very passionate about sports. I know they recognize the potential for sports, not only as an income earner for our young people in the estates and villages, but also as an important pastime to be able to engage young people and dissuade them from engaging in what would otherwise be bad behaviour. I have attended tournaments here. I have attended a football tournament in Kamukunji. I saw the talent. However, the state of the pitch there is pathetic. If these youths were provided with sufficient facilities, I think they would go far. Many of us have seen the sort of opportunities that are there for people who have talent in the arts or even in sports to lift their families and communities out of poverty. I think you remember the excitement of the first person to ever play in the Premier League. When Wanyama went to Tottenham, we were all very excited. If one looks at the sort of money that is in play in those circumstances, it is an opportunity that we are sitting on as a country. I had the occasion also to attend a boxing match one time here. There was a Tanzanian who used to be very loudmouthed and he was fighting one of our local boys here. It was a proper spectacle. If you went to KICC on that night you found the whole place totally full of boxing fans. People might not see the potential for these things. I believe that we can do something, so that this talent mashinani does not go to waste. We must give them some dignity. They cannot all the time be moving around with begging bowls, yet we have a responsibility to support them. Most importantly, they are also taxpayers. You cannot decide where you will spend our taxes to the exclusion of other people. Counties have a responsibility to build or develop sporting facilities and many of them are struggling to do it. Here in Nairobi, we are struggling with the City Stadium, Joseph Kang’ethe Grounds and Kihumbu-ini. It is a mess, but we are hoping that at least for the associations. These people would not mind. If you go to Woodley, they told me that they do not care the nature of the surface they are playing on. They just want the county government to open this facility, so that they can use it. They need support just to buy basic facilities, pay referees and do the basic things that they are required to do in order to compete. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, with those many remarks, I beg to move, and request that Senator Osotsi, the Senator for Vihiga to second."
},
{
"id": 1556319,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1556319/?format=api",
"text_counter": 261,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will start by thanking Sen. Sifuna, the Senator for Nairobi City County, for coming up with this very progressive piece of legislation; the Sports (Amendment) Bill. Hon. Sifuna is seeking to amend the Sports Act so that we can have a County Sports Association Fund where one per cent of the county revenue fund will be put. The fund will also receive loans, grants and donations from other people. This is a very progressive piece of legislation which we should all support because sports is a very important industry globally and now is one of the highest-paying industries in the world. You have seen how much money the sports people earn. For example, in football, you have heard people talking about billions of Dollars to move a player from one club to another. If that happens The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1556320,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
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"content": "on a large scale, affecting many of our youth, it would be one of the ways of raising money for this country. We know countries which have developed largely because of investment in sports. This is a very welcome amendment. As he rightly said, many counties do not have a sports fund. I think it is only my county, Vihiga, that has a sports fund, but which is largely underfunded. They give them less than Kshs10 million a year. That can do very little work. So, if we will ensure that counties take at least one per cent of their revenue to this Fund, I think we will begin to see improvement. I suggest to my good friend, Sen. Sifuna, to maybe consider amending this Bill, or this clause that deal with how the Fund will be funded, to include monies from the national Government through sharable revenue. In my communication, I will demonstrate why this is possible. I did a lot of research around sports funds. When I was in the National Assembly, I came up with the idea of having sports academies in all the 290 constituencies in Kenya. I came up with a Motion that was passed by the House. During my research, I came across a lot of information that I will share with the Members today. If you go back to history, you will note that sports fund was one of the proposals that emanated during the Grand Coalition Government, which remains to be the only Government that many Kenyans feel worked for them in the history of this country. The Grand Coalition Government had Vision 2030, which had several pillars. One of the pillars was the social pillar where they talked about youth and sports. The Kibaki Regime came up with the Sports Act. In the Sports Act, they came up with a raft of issues. One of them was to have a national academy of sports and sports academies in all counties. They went ahead and came up with a funding mechanism. One of the funding mechanisms was to have a national sports fund, which was to receive its funding from lotteries, betting, and other sources."
},
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"id": 1556321,
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"text_counter": 263,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The Sports Act, 2013, was passed in February, 2013, just a few months before President Kibaki left power. The betting companies were being deducted money, which went into this fund. When President Uhuru Kenyatta came to power, they found idle money which was around Kshs10 billion. They started salivating for it. Instead of investing that money in sports, his Government decided to repeal the Sports Act by removing the entire chapter on the national sports fund and created something called the Sports Act and Social Development Fund through public finance regulation. You will be shocked to hear how Uhuru Kenyatta’s Government proposed to allocate this money. In the regulations, that is the Sports Act and Social Development Fund Regulations, they proposed that 60 per cent of it go to Universal Health Care (UHC). Remember that money was meant for sports. They further proposed that 20 per cent go to promotion and development of arts and five per cent for strategic intervention, whose expenditure will be subject to approval by the Cabinet and not Parliament. Strangely and annoyingly, they proposed that only 5 per cent of that money go to promotion and development of sports. If there is a fund that this House must investigate then it is this fund. When they moved to the Sports Arts and Social Development Fund, the National Sports Fund was left hanging. They operated it for a few months. So, we had two funds: the Sports Arts and Social Development Fund and the National Sports Fund. The initial idea by the Kibaki Government of this Fund was to promote sports. It was to promote our young people, but when President Uhuru saw free money, he decided that this money should go to UHC. We now have the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and the Social Health Authority (SHA). Why do we need to continue taking 60 per cent of this money to UHC? The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services, Senate."
}
]
}