By GPC Features Desk
Ababu Namwamba inherited a troubled sporting landscape in 2022.
He left behind a country with two major international championships on the horizon, including the first World Athletics Championships to be staged in Africa.
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Now Kenya’s High Commissioner to Uganda, Namwamba says his decision to choose Kampala as his diplomatic posting was influenced by the regional sports journey he had helped shape while serving as Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports and the Arts.
“When I was being asked to move into diplomacy, I must thank the President that he gave me the free hand to choose which capital to serve as ambassador, and I had no hesitation in picking Kampala,” Namwamba says.
“I thank Uganda because I have felt at home from day one, from the moment I arrived in Kampala. Today I look back and say it was worth every single energy, every single ounce of effort that we put in was worth it.”
Namwamba assumed office at the Sports Ministry on October 27, 2022, at a difficult moment for Kenyan sport. The country was under an international football ban, while the threat of a World Athletics ban over doping remained.
“I took office on October 27, 2022. And at that time, Kenya was banned from international football,” he recalls. “At that time, the sword of a ban from World Athletics for doping was hanging on Kenya’s neck.”
He also inherited the unsuccessful Kenyan bid to host the 2025 World Athletics Championships, which had gone to Tokyo.
Namwamba says he advised Athletics Kenya to use the experience to prepare a stronger bid for 2029, while the government addressed infrastructure and doping concerns.
When World Athletics president Sebastian Coe visited Nairobi in January 2023, doping was among the major issues raised. Namwamba announced a Sh600 million plan to fight the vice.
But restoring confidence at home was another challenge.
“There was a lot of scepticism, there was a lot of negative energy in the air and everybody was like, ‘Oh really, is it really worth the effort? We have tried it before, it has not worked,’” he says.
Kenya had previously lost the opportunity to host the 1996 AFCON after withdrawing because it was not ready. The country also failed to host the 2018 African Nations Championship.
For Namwamba, those experiences pointed to a deeper problem.
“We had settled, had become too comfortable with mediocrity, and we had come to accept low standards,” he says.
Rather than pursue another solitary bid, he proposed that Kenya join Uganda and Tanzania in a regional effort to host AFCON 2027.
“I proposed that instead of Kenya going it alone, why don’t we do a Pamoja bid?” he says.
A firm believer in regional integration, Namwamba viewed the tournament as an opportunity to use sport to strengthen East African cooperation while pooling infrastructure and resources.
Uganda and Tanzania backed the proposal, which was subsequently presented to President William Ruto and Cabinet.
The bid was built around infrastructure development, talent development and marketing the region as a sporting destination.
Namwamba says hosting major competitions also required Kenya to produce athletes and footballers capable of competing at the highest level. He links this thinking to the Talanta Hela initiative and investments in young talent.
The decisive moment came in Cairo, where the East African bid faced competition from Algeria and West African countries.
International assignments
Namwamba had flown directly from the United States to attend the CAF Congress after an international assignment at the United Nations General Assembly. He says he found the East African team worried that it could lose.
“We did a lot of lobbying the whole night. We literally did not sleep the whole night,” he recalls.
The following morning, Namwamba, Uganda’s Peter Ogwang and their Tanzanian counterpart entered the CAF Congress with a joint message.
One of his most memorable moments came when he produced an East African passport during the presentation.
“I waved that passport in that room to Motsepe and the whole team, and I asked them, ‘Tell me whether there is any region on this continent that boasts of a passport with regional reach,’” he says.
His argument was that AFCON could become more than a tournament hosted by three countries. It could showcase an integrated region, allowing supporters to move between Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam more easily.
“When they realised this is not just about Kenya, or Uganda, or Tanzania. It’s actually about a whole region of Africa of eight countries with 400 million people who are football crazy,” he says.
CAF subsequently awarded the 2027 tournament to the East Africa Pamoja Bid.
For Namwamba, however, winning the bid was only the beginning. He pushed for an infrastructure master plan setting standards for stadium upgrades and new facilities.
Kasarani and Nyayo stadiums were upgraded, while Talanta Sports City emerged as the flagship project.
Namwamba says he was involved in discussions around the architectural design, including features intended to give the stadium a distinct Kenyan identity.
“Even those big shields you see, those were my additions to the project, just to Kenyanise the project,” he says.
He also envisaged the stadium being connected to Nairobi’s wider public transport system through a proposed light rail link from the CBD.
The infrastructure push, together with efforts to address doping, formed part of the groundwork for another major achievement: Kenya’s successful bid to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships.
“I am such a proud Kenyan. I mean, when I heard that announcement, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it! We’ve done it!’” Namwamba says.
“This is the pinnacle of world athletics, and it’s coming to Kenya, to Africa for the first time.”
From his diplomatic post in Kampala, Namwamba remains closely involved in the regional partnership, maintaining regular contact with Uganda’s sports leadership and football authorities.
But he says the real test is no longer winning bids.
“Winning the bid for me is actually a quarter of the game. The real game is delivery,” he says.
He urges the local organising committees preparing for CHAN and AFCON 2027 to focus on execution and attention to detail.
“Keep your eye on the ball with surgical precision. Attention to detail—every little detail must not escape you as the LOC,” he says.
For Namwamba, the journey from the uncertainty of 2022 to two major international hosting rights has reinforced one lesson: ambitious plans can move from paper to reality when institutions are prepared to pursue them with determination.
“My plan has worked,” he says. “There were so many doubting Thomases then, but Kenyans have now seen that it’s possible to plan something and actually deliver it.”
