What awaits new Sports CS Ababu Namwamba

Sports CS Ababu Namwamba duing the handover from Amina Mohamed, yesterday. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard]

Newly appointed Sports CS Ababu Namwamba yesterday took over the mantle of managing the Ministry of Sports from Amina Mohammed with a huge in-tray awaiting him.

Among his first headache to solve will be finding a way to tame the rising cases of doping and helping bring normalcy to Kenya's ailing football.

After weeks of hopes and promises, Kenyans will be expecting immediate solutions to the long standoff between Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and Fifa.

From football, volleyball, rugby, cricket, athletics, chess, among many others, Kenyans will keenly be watching how he deals with the crisis in the country.

Namwamba, who is making a return to the ministry he served in 2012, said his mission is to clean the doping spree, cautioning those involved in the business that their days are numbered.

"As a new government, we want to clean this doping vise which is tainting our image as an athletics powerhouse. This is a warning to anyone including doctors prescribing these drug, your days are numbered," he warned.

"If you are part of this syndicate providing banned substance to our athletes, we are after you because we are working closely with all stakeholders to make it extremely expensive to dope."

"We are going to elevate banned substance to the calibre of hard drugs so that if you are caught, we treat you as a trafficker of heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs."

The former Budalangi MP added that he is going to strictly follow the rule of law as he aims to restore Kenya's football.

Kenya has been under Fifa suspension since February after outgoing CS Amina Mohamed disbanded the Football Kenya Federation in November last year.

"We want to solves the current standoff between FKF and Fifa as soon as possible. I have been well briefed by outgoing CS Amina and we want to look at the proposals put forward herein to solve this matter,"said Namwamba yesterday.