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Edwin Sifuna advocates for restoring Sports Fund’s original purpose, pushing reforms to revive sports infrastructure and investment across Kenya.
Nairobi County Senator Edwin Sifuna has claimed that Parliament deliberately diverted funds meant for the development of sports infrastructure to support the government's universal healthcare programme, undermining the original intention of the Sports Fund.
Speaking at the U.S.–Kenya Creative Economy Forum 2025 attended by Pulse Sports held at a Nairobi hotel, Sifuna strongly criticized past legislative decisions that he says crippled the growth of sports in the country.
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The senator revealed how lawmakers initially set up the fund with a clear focus on promoting sports, only to later amend the law and redirect the bulk of the finances elsewhere.
"I remember the early days of sports betting. The people sitting in parliament, do you know, they imposed a taxation on sports betting. And because they did not know the potential of sports betting, they said all the money that is going to be collected as taxation from sports betting is going to build sports infrastructure," he said.
Original Promise Broken
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The Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund (SASDF), commonly referred to as the Sports Fund, was established in 2018 through the Public Finance Management regulations.
Its core objective was to support the development and promotion of sports, arts, and universal healthcare.
However, according to Sifuna, the original plan was for the money to primarily go towards building sports infrastructure across all 290 constituencies.
"That was the original idea of the sporting fund. We were supposed to have all these facilities that he's talking about in all the 290 constituencies until the money came in. And then these guys realized we are struggling to do all these other things. And there is this man here sitting called the sports fund."
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Sifuna accused lawmakers of altering the fund’s regulations, diverting 60% of its revenue to social programmes like universal healthcare — a move he described as the beginning of the end for the fund's initial objectives.
"They brought an amendment to introduce clauses that say 60% of the sports fund, the money that is realized from sports gambling is now used for something called universal healthcare. That is where we lost it."
Structural Flaws in Sports Management
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The senator also took issue with the structure of sports management in Kenya, attributing the lack of private investment to restrictive regulations under the Sports Act.
He argued that the inability of individuals or entities to own sports teams discourages commercialization and long-term development.
"If you look at the sports act of Kenya, nobody is going to put money in an enterprise car that they do not control. It is not possible. The reason why you commercialize sport in the US is because people own those teams. Now, in Kenya, every sporting entity is registered as a society," he concluded.
Critics of the Sports Fund have long pointed out that the fund's current disbursement model favors non-sports sectors, leaving sports underfunded.
Initially, only 35% of the fund’s resources were allocated to sports, while a significant 60% was funneled into universal healthcare.
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In a shift of policy, the National Treasury in November last year introduced an amendment aimed at reverting the fund’s focus solely to sports and arts development — a move welcomed by stakeholders, though many argue it may be too late to reverse the damage.
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