Uproar as Ksh 1 billion Allocated for Sports Funding Given to Health Ministry

Kenyans are now demanding an explanation of how a whopping 1 billion shillings set aside for Sports Ministry was released to the Health Ministry.

It emerged that 1 billion shillings that had been allocated to support the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund was paid out to facilitate the removal of mobile clinic containers from the National Youth Service Yard in Miritini.

The Ministry of Health received the controversial cash from the Sports Fund to facilitate the refurbishment of the mobile clinics, move them from the NYS yard and distribute them to different parts of the country.

The Sport’s Fund released cash for the refurbishment of the very containers that were under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

EACC was investigating the Health Ministry after 5.2 billion shillings were lost during the procurement of the mobile clinics.

The mobile clinics were meant to help people with informal settlements access medical services but the project had stalled for more than four years. And then eyebrows were raised when the containers which were lying at the NYS yard in Miritini since 2015 were finally moved.

It is quite weird that the sports ministry has been struggling to fund most of its projects and yet it can afford to pay out money to support other ministries, which also have funds allocated to them.

The National Assembly Committee on Sports led by their chairperson Victor Munyaka, demanded the Sports Fund managers explain the transactions involved with the Health Ministry.

“It’s true the money was paid to the Ministry of Health. We were told the money was used to furnish the clinics. As a committee, this is an issue of great concern to us,” Munyaka commented.

“We have no problem with the ministry being paid the money but we are concerned about the timing because it comes at a time when the sports fraternity is going through a cash crunch. This does not look good,” Munyaka added.

In recent days, some key sports’ sponsors withdrew their sponsorships from Kenya leaving the Ministry in dire need of supportive funds.

The withdrawal of key sponsors was felt hard especially by the Kenyan Premier League as most clubs wrote to the sports ministry requesting for the suspension of the league since they could not fund their activities.

If all factors remain constant, the 1 billion shillings paid out to the Health Ministry could support the KPL for the next 10 years(seasons).