NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 10 – Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed has constituted a nine-member ministerial committee on gender welfare in sports and also instructed all sports bodies to ensure that representation at the management level is on the constitutionally represented two thirds rule.
The committee will be chaired by former two-time marathon world champion Catherine Ndereba and deputised by Sports Registrar Rose Wasike.
Also included in the committee is forensic medical expert Dr Kizzie Shako, Ms Hibbo Hussein, handball coach Catherine Mabwi and Linda Ndiwa while the male representation will be professor Paul Ochieng, Ibrahim Hussein and events guru Ted ‘Big Ted’ Kwaka.
The CS made the decision after growing concerns over the treatment of women in sports especially among athletes themselves with the basketball fraternity having come out this week with women players complaining of mistreatment as well as sexual harassment.
“All Sports Organisations and Federations registered with the Ministry shall ensure that women are represented in management and, that the constitutional threshold of two thirds gender representation is upheld,” a statement from the Ministry said.
CS Amina also added; “As a matter of Practice, they shall also endeavour to maintain a 50:50 men to women representation in Management and all other administrative operations.”
The CS has also warned that federations which do not adhere to this new directive stand the risk of losing funding from the government.
At the same time, the CS has warned that anyone implicated in any verified case of harassment, sexual or otherwise, should be excluded from Federation and Team affairs with immediate effect and a report by the concerned Federation to be availed to her office.
She has warned any Federation that will not report such cases that they will be deregistered.
Also, the CS has directed that no women teams will leave the country for any competition or participate in internal competitions without being accompanied by at least two women officials, a doctor and a team welfare officer.
