Thursday, April 17, 2008
The new minister for youth and sports Dr. Hellen Sambili made the revelation Thursday morning at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport when seeing off the under 20 national soccer team which left the country for the Africa Youth soccer championships qualifier in Djibouti against Somalia.
Dr. Sambili, who took over office on Wednesday, said she is well aware of the challenges that lay ahead but promised she would do her best to revamp soccer standards in the country by engaging all stakeholders
The minister said the intervention by president Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who are personally interested in the success of sports, saw the team getting 2 million shillings from Haco Industries.
She appealed to corporate organizations to emulate such companies, which are actively involved in supporting sports programmes.
The Kenyan contingent which consist of 20 players and 4 officials is led by head coach Leonard Saleh, who is optimistic the team would do well in tomorrow's match against their Somalian counterparts.
Meanwhile, world half marathon record holder Samuel Wanjiru and former world 10 thousand metres champion Charles Kamathi jetted back into the country and were received by the minister at the airport.
Wanjiru finished 2nd behind winner fellow Kenyan Martin Lel in this year's London marathon while Kamathi finished 3rd in the Rotterdam marathon, both held last Sunday.
Source: KBC, April 17, 2008