Ministry ordered to conduct public participation on sports academies

Players of KYSA international soccer academy play with a ball after their training at the ground next to the Kasarani Stadium on May 12, 2018. [AFP] 

The High Court has called out the Ministry of Sports for establishing academies without proper consultations on which regions should pilot the idea.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi said that although lack of public participation did not render the sports academy unconstitutional, the process through which the ministry arrived at the constituencies as the starting point was faulty.

He was of the view that the ministry should regularise the process by conducting public participation, failure of which, the court will crack the whip.

“There was a lack of sufficient public participation in the process of formulating the criteria for identification and selection of the Sports Academies and the determination of the location at which they would be piloted. Indeed, the first respondent’s attempt to justify the discretionary criteria that it applied was unconvincing and portrayed a process susceptible to arbitrariness,” said Justice Mugambi.

The case was filed by Jared Ngisa against Kenya Sports Academy and the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports.

He stated that in 2024, the Ministry sought to establish 30 academies countrywide. The court heard that three of each sports academy were to be established in Machakos and Busia, two of each in Nandi, Murang’a, Nairobi, Kwale and Kitui and one of each in Bomet, Siaya, Nyandarua, Homabay, Baringo, Uasin Gishu, Kakamega, Vihiga, Bungoma, Kiambu, Elgeyo Marakwet, Marsabit, Turkana and Wajir.

Ngisa asserted the Ministry had no answers on how it arrived at the pilot constituencies.

In response, the academy and the Ministry argued that the ultimate goal is to nurture sportsmen and women from the grassroots in all the 290 constituencies.

It argued that it the decision to commission the academies in 26 constituencies was arrived at in 2023 following a feasibility study.