 It was created by Sports Act 2013. However, it came into operation in 2014 when the first staff members were posted from the ministry responsible for sports. Now, the mandate of the Kenya Academy of Sports is to train sports men and women, that is our co-function. Our other mandate is to train technical staff so that they are proficient in their work, people like coaches, even in referees we can do that in conjunction of course with the local federations and with the international federations and other technical people, trainers and so on we can train them also to make them more proficient in their work so that is our responsibility and another very important responsibility of the Kenya Academy of Sports is to conduct research in sports matters. You will realize that probably only the universities conduct research in this area so the Kenya Academy of Sports will be looking more into the performance side of sports. Why is it that we are doing well in one particular spot and how can we even become better and in our weak areas why is it that we are weak in that area and how can we improve on our performance so those are our our mandate. We are working with relevant organizations and institutions to ensure that we develop selection criteria that is going to be fair to everybody so that we don't leave any talented young boy or girl out there wherever they may be in the entire Republic of Kenya and also we are working with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to develop curricula. This is important because right now we've got sports academies all over the country but those sports academies are not following any specific curriculum so we are working with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and on board we also have sports federations our local sports federations they are with us in this and other stakeholders the universities Kenyatta University is represented Nairobi University is represented and other stakeholders together we are working on the curriculum of the first six sports disciplines that we are going to have and these are football, athletics, basketball, volleyball, cricket and golf that is the first set of six sports disciplines that we are working on so that if a child will be learning golf in Nairobi it's the same thing they'll be doing this if they're the same age group if they are for example 12 year olds learning golf in Nairobi they'll be doing the same thing as a 12 year old in Mombasa is doing so that the curriculum is almost standard right another successful thing that the Kenya Academy of Sports has done every school holidays we mount training programs for school going children in various parts of Nairobi particularly but we will move to other towns as well we've got Karuri which is privately owned by us where we are conducting cricket together with other stakeholders we've got Gaka in Makueni where we are doing a wide variety of of sports among them athletics and football then we've got also Rabairod here in Nairobi where we are doing again a wide variety of sports then we've got at Mukuru Kwanjenga the informal settlement together with support from our partners UNICEF we are working on something a sports program to help to empower to help to empower young sportsmen and women from disadvantaged backgrounds and that is why we've gone to the informal settlements of Mukuru and we shall be expanding this program with the support of UNICEF who are our partners then in Karyubangi there is a center called Akakoro again we are working on that and there we are developing football um at St. George's school in Nairobi we are doing roller sport as well so that you can see already we are reaching out a wide variety of sports disciplines also in house we have FC Talanta which is playing in the second tier of football and FC Talanta is doing very very well is one of the leading teams right now in the division one league of the football federation of Kenya FC Talanta was made up of young talented men whom we selected and gave training here at the Kenya Academy of Sports and then after that we formed a platform for them to now showcase their talent by playing in the league and comparing themselves with the others and they're doing very very well we have managed to send out very many um well-known personalities well-known names um i think um Injunia Olunga Jojo Lunga is one of the products of our pro programs in in in football and in volleyball we have Gaudensia Makoha who is also one of our programs she's playing professional volleyball out of the country i think in Poland and so we have already got some graduates who are already playing well out there and a lot of them have been absorbed into um other clubs as well the Kenya Academy of Sports is already partnering with the teacher service commission and with the ministry of education so that we can access the schools and use the schools as units to develop sports programs we will have very well selected coaches and trainers whom we shall assign duties in those various schools and so they will help to improve improve the standards of these children in the schools and i'm sure the ministry of education will see the marked improvement in the standards of these children when it comes to the school games and so on and it is from the school games again and with further training that we shall be able to select different age groups of children that are going to represent this country in different age group categories for example under 15s under 17s under 19 under 21 and so on so with this way if we can have these things rolled out in a systematic way and in a technical way then this country will be great in sports so that we want to build on elite sports so that these elite athletes are the ones in different age categories who will be representing our country so that is the work in progress that we are working on right now in a very short time in a period of just about three or four years the kenya academy of sports has achieved quite a lot and we are the name to work with in sports because we want to give the best we want to develop the best that kenya can produce so we must give them the best coaches even the former national football coach uh okumi is in our program he works with us also and when we mount the programs we bring okumi on board to also assist these children that shows you the level of quality that we want out of the children and the level of quality that we inject into the children so we want the best out of them but we must balance the number and the resources available if we get more resources we'll be able to do more vigorous programs in other parts of the country as well and we will get there step by step the role of the kenya academy of sports is actually to develop elite sport the ultimate is to develop elite sport but even the development of your elite sports must start from somewhere as we go along the way we will find other young men and women who are not who cannot match up because of the limitation in talent limitation in time limitation in various other things so now these ones we will offload them to the level which is suitable for them as we continue to build on the elite until we have the very best representing this country and we will concentrate on the very best while at the same time those who cannot be the very best can still find places along the way that they can go and participate in for example we can offload some to some clubs we can offload some to other institutions where they can also still be able to play their sport and also be able to achieve and also be able to derive the satisfaction that all of us derive from sports and most importantly the very best will go out to play for this country in various sports disciplines the board which is governing the kenya academy of sports is led by renowned world athlete dr paul tergat who is the chairman and among them we've got very renowned athletes we've got we've got um kajange who is um one of our best exponents in rugby all kenyans know hamfri kajange he sits in our board we've got kathrin dereva is a well-known name everybody knows her champion in cross country she sits in our board teklalu rupe sits in this board a well-known marathon runner at one time she was even the world marathon ladies champion or record holder and and so on these are people and of course we've got very rich representation from the ministry responsible for sports from the atoni general from the ministry of finance from the ministry of education and so it's a very rich and very cohesive board that we are having here to run their affairs of the academy kenya academy of sports and then on the part of the management which is currently being led by me i i believe most kenyan know me and i believe that i've played my part and i continue to play my part in sports development in this country and i've got a strong management team also made up of very experienced sports officers and administrative staff and together we are championing the interest of this organization and ensuring that the kenya academy of sports meets its mandate we're making some progress we keep on seeing every day new sports that kenyas were not participating in before um and we see them coming on board and more and more kenyas are participating in them i think that's a good sign that is a sign that our sport is growing however at the um qualitative side on the quality side um we still have room to work on and that is now the advantage of the academies the academies represent the future the academies must come up and be well regulated in the country to give that intensive training which is geared towards developing quality athletes and so if all the academies did this together i'm glad also in parliament we've heard recently and it has been passed by parliament and i believe it's going to be ascended to by um his excellency the president that we have sports academies in every constituency fully supported by the government of course and other stakeholders now if this takes place you can see that we shall be able to tap young talent right from the constituency level and if we do that and build to the county level and then build to the regional level and to the national level giving proper instructions and guidance to these people coming up and exposing them to as much sport as possible then quality of kenyan sport will definitely go up and we are on track we are already doing that that is exactly the reason why sports act 2013 came into being and set five major institutions which are meant to drive kenyan sport to the next level