Ababu defends record amid onslaught from UDA leaders
Sports and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has defended his record and dismissed the removal of the Arts role from his docket as an indictment of his performance.
Transcript
00:00 What is the role of the government in the restructuring of the country?
00:05 It is normal restructuring of government.
00:08 The president saw it fit to constitute a new ministry, an entirely new ministry.
00:16 The ministry of gender, culture, the arts and heritage is an entirely new ministry.
00:24 He has had to create that ministry. How was he going to create that ministry?
00:30 By picking a few pieces here and there. He has picked a whole State Department of Gender from the Ministry of Public Service.
00:40 He has picked a whole State Department of Culture and Heritage from the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.
00:48 I don't believe it has anything to do with performance, that the whole State Department of Culture and Heritage has been taken away from the Ministry of Tourism.
00:59 To help form this new ministry of culture, the arts and heritage.
01:09 I believe that it is also for purposes of coherence because the arts and culture belong together.
01:17 We have been in a situation where the arts and culture were split.
01:22 Culture was in the Ministry of Tourism, the arts was in the Ministry of Youth.
01:27 So consolidating them together under culture, arts and heritage is a natural thing.
01:33 For coherence, for order.
01:36 It is absolutely in order and at the end of the day, the appointing authority has the prerogative to formulate government as he considers fit in realizing his agenda and his vision for the country.
01:54 There are two ways of looking at it.
02:01 Number one, we live in a political environment, so you will not be immune to political shenanigans.
02:11 That is normal, I mean it affects everybody.
02:15 But what is important for me is that I have no doubt that I am a man, President William Ruto's best performing cabinet secretaries.
02:25 I have no doubt, I know my capabilities, I know where I found this ministry, I know where this ministry is right now.
02:33 Today, 10 months down the line, I took office about 11 months ago. It is remarkable that this time last year, there was no football to talk about in Kenya.
02:46 Football in Kenya was frozen because of the FIFA suspension.
02:50 There was no football.
02:52 At first, 11 months down the line, counties are now fighting who should host AFCON.
02:59 I love that fight because it means that football is back and people are getting into the groove of football.
03:08 We are performing very well in pretty much every sport.
03:11 Our team has just swept the road races, the first ever world athletics road running championship in Riga and Latvia.
03:19 We swept everything pretty much.
03:21 Our rugby servants have just conquered Africa, qualified for the Olympics.
03:28 Our volleyball women team, the Malakia strikers, have just conquered Africa and qualified for the Olympics.
03:34 Our team performed very well in Budapest, topping Africa in the world athletics championships.
03:40 Our women football team, the Harambe Starlets, did something that no Kenyan team has ever done, to beat a Cameroonian team in football.
03:49 That has never happened in the history of football.
03:53 So, our trajectory in sports is on the high.
03:58 When it comes to youth affairs, I have just come from New York, where our national youth agenda has been incorporated in the UN's platform for youth globally, Generation Unlimited, where I've actually been nominated to sit on the Global Leadership Council.
04:19 I mean, by any metric, from whatever angle you look at it, by whatever measure you apply, whatever yardstick, I am a performing cabinet secretary.
04:31 If I was not performing, the president would have just had an opportunity to shuffle his cabinet.
04:36 I am sure if I was not performing, he would have said, he would have, he had three options.
04:43 Either to keep me performing, or to switch me, or to drop me.
04:59 I was here on two accounts, principally to advance a memorandum of understanding that we signed between Kenya and China two months ago.
05:15 Minister Hupeng was in Nairobi two months ago, and I led a Kenyan delegation to very fruitful bilateral talks between our Kenyan side and the Chinese side, which he led, which Minister Hupeng led.
05:35 And the essence of his visit was to explore areas of cooperation in a very wide range of areas.
05:45 The arts, culture, tourism, sports, and generally what we call in diplomacy, people to people, it's people to people diplomacy.
06:00 So we had very, very fruitful, very cordial talks in Nairobi. We signed an MOU on how to advance cooperation in all those areas.
06:08 And we agreed that we will start one by one, ticking off activities to advance.
06:16 You know, sometimes you sign an MOU, and oftentimes it starts and ends with a signing ceremony.
06:24 So that after the signing ceremony, you pretty much forget about it.
06:29 So we agreed that we wanted this MOU to be alive, and we wanted to start activating elements of that MOU.
06:43 This week, the autonomous region of Xinjiang was hosting the Trans-Himalayan Forum on International Cooperation.
06:57 It is an incredible platform, an incredible platform to explore cultural identity, cultural cooperation, and such a wide range of things, including conservation.
07:12 I don't know whether you guys have had the opportunity to visit the Xinjiang region.
07:16 But you go to that region and you see the miracle of ecological harmony or ecological balance,
07:24 where human settlement and conservation sort of blends in symphonious harmony.
07:31 And people just live so harmoniously with nature.
07:37 It's like our Maasai people have managed to do with a heritage just like the Maasai Mara or such places.
07:45 And so this was a good forum for us to get our cultural cooperation up and running.
07:52 We were also to extend this conversation to sports cooperation.
07:59 You know that the Chinese admire Kenyan middle and long distance running a lot.
08:06 And the one question they keep on asking, and they have been asking even this evening,
08:11 what's the secret of Kenyans doing what they do, like what the Kenyans have just done in Riga and Latvia, of winning pretty much every gold medal on offer.
08:22 And so among the things we are exploring is to use our high altitude training areas as tourism attractions.
08:34 We want Chinese, either for competition or even for leisure, to come and visit Camarines, come and visit Elberet, come and visit Iten, come and visit Kaptangar Forest.
08:44 And even the mountain region, areas like Embu, Meru, Nyeri.
08:53 And so I see that as an area that could also grow our tourism numbers.
09:02 And so we are also looking at extending this conversation to the National Sports Administration, which is like their ministry for sports.
09:21 We are extremely proud of clinching the rights to host AFCON, jointly with our brother, sister countries of Uganda and Tanzania.
09:34 It's been long in coming. I mean, Kenya has desired to host this African showcase for a long time.
09:45 We got a shot in '96, got the rights for '96, played around with it, lost it to South Africa.
09:53 This time, it's not going anywhere. We are hosting AFCON 2027. Believe you me, we are hosting this one.
10:03 We are very prepared, we have a very good plan.
10:07 It is on the basis of this very impressive, convincing plan that the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football awarded us the rights to host this tournament.
10:19 Our plan is broad-based, it's comprehensive, it's all-encompassing. It includes overhaul of our sports infrastructure.
10:30 We can't hide the fact that our sporting infrastructure is in tatters, total tatters.
10:37 We have not made any serious investment in our sporting infrastructure for eons.
10:42 The last time we invested anything serious in infrastructure, sport-wise, is 40 years ago.
10:50 Nyayo Stadium, '83, Kasarani, '87. That is 40 years ago.
10:58 It's about time we made some serious investment and we are ready to do that.
11:02 We have redesigned Kasarani, we have redesigned Nyayo, we have redesigned Kipchoge-Kenyo Stadium in Eldred.
11:10 We have put together a concept for a spanking new stadium which we are calling the Talanta Sports City,
11:17 which is going to be East Africa's first football-only customised stadium without a racing track.
11:25 60,000 seaters. And I'm very happy that the Cabinet has approved these plans.
11:30 And so we are good to go.
11:34 We have gone into partnership with the KDF, the Ministry of Defence,
11:40 who are going to support the Ministry of Sports in terms of execution and supervision.
11:47 So we are ready and we are good to go.
11:51 I know that our partner states, Uganda and Tanzania, are similar already.
11:56 We have a joint team led by the three Ministers of Sports of the three countries.
12:01 And I can assure the people of Kenya, I can assure the people of East Africa,
12:05 we are going to put on a show like has never been seen on the continent of Africa.
12:15 All these facilities we expect the works to start by conclusion of this month.
12:21 Once we have already handed, I personally handed the sites to the Ministry of Defence.
12:28 We then needed Cabinet clearance and Cabinet has had occasion to look at the matter
12:36 and cleared at our last Cabinet sitting last Tuesday.
12:43 The next level now is for the actual works to start.
12:47 We know that the designs were prepared by the Ministry of Sports,
12:53 working together with the University of Nairobi Enterprise Services as our consultants.
12:59 And we know that once KDF sits down to start the actual work,
13:04 and we have handed all these plans to, have handed the plans to the Ministry of Defence,
13:10 we make some alterations which is normal in engineering in this kind of work.
13:15 But we expect that by November they should have hit the road running,
13:19 because we have a deadline of 2025.
13:24 CAF will be knocking at our door in 2025 to inspect our infrastructural preparedness.
13:37 I know that the issue was never about KDF playing a role in national development,
13:44 because KDF is part of the Kenyan fabric, the Kenyan social fabric.
13:48 In the world over, the military always plays a role in national development.
13:55 The criticism was about the style, the approach of their involvement.
14:03 We never heard of a program of this nature going to cabinet for cabinet approval.
14:09 Because you see, cabinet is the highest decision making policy organ of government.
14:16 And if you are going to have a policy decision where you are asking KDF to be involved in a matter of this nature,
14:24 you must subject that decision to cabinet.
14:28 You must subject that decision to analysis from all points, from 7D as it were.
14:34 And then you must bear the details to the public.
14:40 The way we are doing it.
14:43 You may want to know that before we started this process,
14:47 I wrote a letter to the head of the public service to indicate to him that we want to do this process.
14:55 We are pressed for time because of the very tight timelines.
14:59 And we are keen on efficiency, we are keen on attention to detail,
15:07 we are keen on cost effectiveness, and we were seeking guidance on whether we could use
15:16 what we call a whole of government approach to deliver this program.
15:22 The head of public service guided, then we took the matter to cabinet,
15:25 cabinet has discussed the matter, we have handed over sites publicly to KDF,
15:30 the matter is in the public domain, the matter is subject to public scrutiny,
15:37 like you are doing right now as members of the fourth estate,
15:41 you can scrutinize this matter, you can critique this matter, you can question this matter.
15:48 This has not been done before, and that approach is what we felt was not right.
15:53 You know, we are partner states in the East African community,
16:03 remember Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania are the founding members of the world's oldest regional integration effort.
16:15 The East African community is older than the European Union.
16:18 In fact, the European Union picked lessons from the East African community,
16:26 only that at some point we stumbled, but as a community we have a rich heritage,
16:34 a rich history of doing things together.
16:38 We put together a profound, remarkable, convincing joint bid, which we call the East Africa Pamoja bid.
16:50 It was a winning bid because we presented a common front.
16:55 We believe that this is not just about hosting a football tournament,
16:59 we believe this is actually a platform to strengthen the bonds of East African integration.
17:06 Through hosting AFCON together, we will increase cross-border movement,
17:12 we will actually strengthen the East African passport.
17:15 This is an opportunity to implement the long-held dream of the East African common tourist visa,
17:24 where you have one entry visa for the whole block, the East African block.
17:31 This is an opportunity to roll out shared tourism packages,
17:37 so that you can come to East Africa, do Serengeti, do Mara, do Mount Rwenzori and that whole ecosystem,
17:49 do Zanzibar, do Diami, and just take in the incredible…
17:58 I mean there is no region of Africa that is more diverse and richer in terms of culture
18:04 and touristic attractions than the East African belt.
18:07 So we should not look at this merely as a football tournament,
18:12 but as an opportunity to market East Africa as a package.
18:17 And it's not just about the three countries.
18:20 We are inviting Rwanda to be part of this.
18:24 We are inviting DR Congo, the newest member of the East African community, to be part of this.
18:29 Burundi, South Sudan, we want it to be a celebration of our oneness as the East African block.
18:37 300 million people, almost.
18:40 So I don't expect any challenge.
18:42 People are asking, so who will host the opening ceremony?
18:45 So who will host the final?
18:47 So who will host the headquarters?
18:49 So who will host the draw?
18:52 I can assure that we will agree.
18:54 The way we agreed to put together a winning bid jointly,
18:57 we will agree to share those responsibilities.
19:00 I don't expect any problems at all.
19:02 What are the challenges of the upcoming tournament?
19:07 I believe that those are things we are…
19:09 The good thing is that we have a very good working formula.
19:12 We have a common platform, co-chaired by the three ministers of sports in Nairobi,
19:19 Islam and Kampala.
19:20 We actually do rotating meetings in the three capitals.
19:23 We believe that we will sit down, we will assess the capabilities of every capital.
19:28 And at the end of the day, remember this is a CAF event,
19:32 so CAF makes the final call on the basis of many metrics.
19:37 So we believe that based on the metrics that we will make objective decisions.
19:41 Who is capable to do what, and what works best where.
19:46 At the end of the day, we want a successful tournament
19:49 that paints East Africa in the best light possible
19:53 and markets our region to the world.
19:55 Thank you.
19:56 Thank you.
19:57 Thank you.
19:58 Thank you.
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