Namwamba hails Nairobi’s 2029 World Athletics hosting rights win

Namwamba was the Sports Cabinet Secretary back in 2023 when Kenya confirmed its intention to bid for the championships after losing the 2025 edition to Tokyo.

Kenya subsequently strengthened its bid by improving sports infrastructure and preparing a more comprehensive proposal, eventually securing the hosting rights during the World Athletics Council meeting in Budapest on the September 15.

The decision makes Nairobi the first African city to host the senior World Athletics Championships.

Reflecting on the announcement, Namwamba said the significance of the event cannot be underestimated.

“I had that announcement and I was like this is it! You know this is the world cup of athletics and you can just look at it in the scale of the just concluded FIFA world cup in the USA. This is the pinnacle of world athletics and it is coming to Kenya and Africa for the first time. The feeling is similar to the one we had as Africa when we hosted the FIFA world cup in 2010 in South Africa,” said Ababu.

Namwamba also pointed to the progress Kenya has made in addressing doping concerns since 2023.

“I am very happy to see what can transform in two, three years because in 2023 the president of world athletics Lord Sebastian Coe came to Nairobi and among the agenda that brought him here was serious doping concerns and at that time Kenya had been given deadlines otherwise it was going to be banned from world athletics.

"WADA and AIU had very serious statistics about Kenya and we were in the band of worst offenders in doping and I announced a plan of KSh. 600m to go to war against doping and now three years down the line we have won the rights to host the 2029 event which is a big victory for Kenya.” 

Namwamba said the successful bid also reflects a broader government plan to use sport and the creative economy to support economic development and create opportunities for young people.

“We had a very solid plan around sports and the creative economy and I had actually participated in writing that plan which is very clear on how to deploy sports and the creative economy to propel our economic development and to particularly empower our young people,” said Ababu.

He added that hosting major international competitions was among the key objectives of the plan.

“Among the targets in the plan was to make Kenya a hub for hosting significant regional and international events. And from that I prepared a very comprehensive long term plan. We had three objectives which, revolutionalise our infrastructure.”