Boost as Yattani hands Sports Fund massive rise in budgetary allocation

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 11 – The Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture is set to have a bigger purse to work with after National Treasury and Planning Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani proposed an allocation of Sh14bn to the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund as he tabled the 2020-2021 national budget before parliament on Thursday afternoon.

The allocation is a huge increase from the Sh5.3bn handed to the Fund in last year’s budget.

“Sports, Culture and Arts contribute immensely to our economic development by boosting job creation for our youth and generating foreign exchange. To support this sector, I propose allocation of 14bn to Sports Arts and Social Development Fund,” Yattani said as he presented the estimates to the National Assembly.

The allocation, if approved by Parliament, will be a huge boost to the Ministry’s task of renovating more than nine stadia as well as successful hosting of the Safari Rally and the World Under-20 Athletics Championship.

The Ministry has used money from the Sports Fund to finance the renovation of the Nyayo National Stadium as well as several other sporting facilities in the country, including the Kenya Academy of Sports at Kasarani.

With an increased allocation, most of the pending works in several stadia including Kip Keino in Eldoret, Mombasa, and the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground in Kisumu are set to be completed.

Earlier this week, Sports CS Amina Mohamed said the Ministry would finance the expansion of the Nairobi testing Laboratory as they look to deal with the doping menace and the increase in budget will be a big boost towards this.

At the same time, Kenya is waiting on dates for the Safari Rally and World Athletics Under-20 Championship which were both set to be staged this year.

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