Chris Musumba
16 December 2009
Nairobi — Finally, the government has allowed the Local Organising Committee of the 2010 Senior Africa Athletics Championship to open and operate an independent bank account after a day-long meeting with Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.
However, in a bid to retain its hold on the event, a Ministry of Sports signatory will be mandatory among the five who will operate the account. "I am happy we [LOC] had a successful meeting yesterday with the Finance minister. The permanent secretary, Joseph Kinyua, agreed to us running an independent bank account and is to sign the letter to get us moving," said LOC chief executive officer David Okeyo.
Okeyo nonetheless underscored that the account, to be opened today at National Bank of Kenya, must be credited with the full Sh200 million the government has pledged towards the championship.
LOC is, however, faced with the challenge of bridging a Sh100 million budget deficit.
Organisation and accountability of the 2007 World Cross-country Championship in Mombasa remained a stumbling block to LOC securing the green light to operate an independent account.
However, Okeyo failed to confirm what exactly the contentious issue with the championship was in 2007, that derailed the Treasury's sanction."We as Athletics Kenya were never involved in the daily running of the games. So we cannot be blamed for a mistake that was never ours."
Hurdle cleared
The main hurdle cleared, Okeyo said operations at LOC, which have been going at a snail's gallop, will go to full throttle as AK seeks to recover lost time.
The championship will be staged at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, from July 28 to August 1 and will attract athletes from all the 54 countries in Africa. "The championship will be used to select Africa's team to the World Cup in Croatia. It's every athlete's dream to run in such a competition and certainly top athletes will come to seek qualification," said Okeyo.
Inclusive in the budget will be Sh40 million for acquisition of equipments and Okeyo said that it was important for them to order the bulky and most important ones like the big screen before they break for Christmas holiday. They have a up to January 30 to have the equipment fixed and tested before the April dry run competition to be staged in Nairobi.
LOC is faced with a mountain of work including training of officials and umpires to oversee the officiating in the championship.
At the same time, Okeyo sought to assure sponsors that fans will troop to the stadiums to watch the championship. With a bad report having been delivered over Orange Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, where funs stayed away and the few who turned up wanted to access the venue without buying tickets, Okeyo said athletics was different from football and should be treated as such.
"It is a disappointment when you see that the fans are not turning up. We have organised track athletics meetings and scores of fans have always turned up. I believe we will see them again in July, he said.
LOC is planning to have special shuttle busses to ferry spectators to and from Kasarani during the five days of the championship. However, Okeyo noted that good marketing and sensitisation of the event was the trick to get the numbers in the stadium.
Already a marketing team from Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) is in the country to tie up the loose ends and fast track the sensitisation and promotion of the championship.