Sports CS Ababu Namwamba: I’ll not resign to please one MP
Ababu Namwamba, the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Youth, and the Arts has reiterated his stance that he will not resign from his cabinet docket.
In response to an InfoTrak Poll released last week on the performance of President William Ruto’s Cabinet one year on, CS Namwamba said he had performed well since his appointment despite scoring an average grade and added that he will not resign because of one Parliamentarian.
“I believe Kenyans know that we have done our work and that we took the right steps to improve this sector that we found to be in critical condition. When you investigate how sports, culture, and the youth in this Ministry were faring back then, you will find that we found this docket in a lot of problems. We found football had been banned and the economics surrounding football were in the freezer.
There is an economy that depends on football. On match days, there is a person who will come and mark the pitch, another one will come to provide security and another one will come to take care of the players- doctors, coaches, and so forth. There is an entire economy there and if you put a stop to these proceedings, the economy will collapse. My happiness is that- it took us one month to improve the football sector. My first phone call in office was to FIFA in search of President Gianni Infantino for an appointment. We met, agreed and resolved matters and now football is progressing.
When you tell me about resigning, you can’t just take the opinion of one Parliamentarian. I was in Parliament, I listened to them and I saw the Member of Parliament for Kajiado Central, my good friend Honorable Elijah Memusi Kanchory. I watched him and just realized it was like he was joking with me. Those were his opinions, I respect them but in general, I believe aside from politics, my leadership in this Ministry has brought back the status of sports and the nature of sports in the country is now stable,” said CS Namwamba yesterday on NTV.
In August 2023, Honorable Memusi called for the resignation of Ababu Namwamba amid claims he is mismanaging the Ministry, neglecting athletes, especially those with disabilities, late bookings of participants in sporting events, athletes donning fake gear, large idle cheering squads, the alleged inclusion of girlfriends and mistresses by Ministry and Athletics Kenya officials in travelling parties at the expense of players and failure to flag off and receive athletes who travelled abroad to represent Kenya.
These allegations were mentioned when CS Namwamba faced the Parliament to answer questions surrounding the Sports docket operations.
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