Kenya has never had a standalone legal right protecting an athlete’s name, image and likeness. The Sports Bill 2026 Kenya lawmakers are now reviewing would close that gap for the first time: a wide-ranging piece of legislation prepared by a ministerial taskforce to replace the Sports Act, 2013. For the first time, Kenyan sports persons would have an explicit statutory right to control the commercial use of who they are, not just an assortment of contract clauses and borrowed intellectual property doctrines.
Why Kenya has never had a true image right
Until now, an athlete whose photo appeared on unauthorised merchandise, or whose name was used to endorse a product without consent, had to build a case out of whatever tools happened to fit. Contract law could protect an athlete who had signed a sponsorship agreement, but only against the other party to that agreement. Trade mark law could help if the athlete had registered their name or a logo. Copyright could cover a specific photograph, but not the underlying right to the athlete’s identity. Passing off could be argued where a business created a false impression of endorsement, but that tort was designed for goodwill in trade, not personal identity, and Kenyan courts have applied it to image cases only awkwardly. The result has been fragmented protection, with outcomes depending heavily on which doctrine an athlete’s lawyers could make fit the facts.
What the draft Bill would introduce
Section 95 of the draft Bill would confer on every sports person the right to control the commercial use of their name, image and likeness, and would prohibit unauthorised exploitation without consent. This is a substantive change, not a restatement of existing practice. It creates a statutory right where none existed before, moving athlete image protection from a matter of private contractual arrangement into one of direct statutory recognition. That shift matters for enforceability: a sponsor, broadcaster or merchandiser could no longer treat the absence of a signed agreement as the absence of a right.
Section 96 goes further, expressly mandating the promotion of the commercialisation of sport, including media rights, merchandising, event hosting and athlete branding. Section 97 then supplies the institutional scaffolding for that commercial activity, requiring commercial sports organisations to operate through recognised legal structures and obtain accreditation, while permitting the use of subsidiaries, special purpose vehicles and joint ventures to hold and exploit commercial rights. Read together, the three provisions do more than protect an athlete’s likeness. They set up a framework in which media rights, merchandising and sponsorship can be structured, licensed and enforced with far greater legal certainty than exists today.
Where the Sports Bill 2026 Kenya process currently stands
It is worth being precise about status, since this point is frequently glossed over in commentary on the Bill. The draft Sports Bill, 2026 was prepared by a ministerial taskforce under the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports. As of the time of writing, it has not been introduced or gazetted as a National Assembly Bill, and does not appear on Parliament’s own bills tracker. It should not be confused with the separate Sports (Amendment) Bill, 2026, sponsored by Hon. Irene Mayaka, which was introduced in the National Assembly in March 2026 and addresses match manipulation and the jurisdiction of the Sports Disputes Tribunal, an entirely different subject matter. The image rights and commercialisation provisions discussed here belong to the broader Sports Bill, 2026 that would replace the Sports Act in its entirety, and that Bill remains at the pre-introduction, taskforce stage. Its content could still change materially before, if, it reaches the House.
What this means for athletes, clubs, sponsors and broadcasters
Even before enactment, the direction of travel is clear enough to justify preparation. Athletes and their agents should review existing endorsement and sponsorship agreements to check how image rights are currently defined and assigned, since a statutory right will sit alongside, and potentially override, poorly drafted private arrangements. Clubs and federations that license player or team imagery to sponsors should reassess whether their current arrangements assume a right that does not yet exist in Kenyan statute, and whether accreditation requirements under a future Section 97 regime would affect how they are structured. Sponsors and broadcasters negotiating long-term media rights or merchandising deals should build in flexibility for a change in the underlying legal basis of those rights, rather than assuming today’s contractual workarounds will remain necessary, or sufficient, once the law changes.
How We Can Help
Clay & Associates Advocates advises athletes, clubs, federations, sponsors and media rights holders on structuring commercial arrangements around image, likeness and sponsorship in Kenya, including reviewing existing agreements for their exposure to this developing area of law. Contact our Intellectual Property team to discuss how the draft Sports Bill, 2026 could affect your contracts and commercial structures.
Sources: draft Sports Bill, 2026 (Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports, prepared by ministerial taskforce), sections 95 to 97; for comparison, the Sports (Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced in the National Assembly on 12 March 2026. See also our companion piece on what the Bill means for sponsorship, merchandising, and media rights contracts.
Frequently asked questions
Does Kenyan law currently protect an athlete’s image?
Not directly. There is no standalone image right in Kenyan law today. Protection currently depends on a combination of contract, trade mark registration, copyright in specific images, and the tort of passing off, none of which was designed specifically for this purpose.
Is the Sports Bill, 2026 already in force?
No. It is a draft prepared by a ministerial taskforce and has not been introduced in the National Assembly. It is also a different instrument from the Sports (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was introduced in March 2026 to address match manipulation and is already before the House.
What would Section 95 actually change?
It would create a direct statutory right for every sports person to control the commercial use of their name, image and likeness, and would prohibit unauthorised exploitation without their consent, regardless of whether a contract addresses the point.
Should we wait until the Bill is enacted before reviewing our contracts?
No. Reviewing existing sponsorship, endorsement and licensing agreements now allows clubs, athletes and sponsors to identify gaps before a statutory right changes the legal baseline those contracts were drafted against.
