Sports cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed has appealed to sports associations to ensure they put the interests of athletes and support personnel to take the industry to the next level.
Speaking in Eldoret, on the sidelines of the Annual Athletes' Conference, Amina said sports in general and athletics in particular, has played a pivotal role in empowering many individuals across the country.
“My appeal to all sports organisations is to support personnel and encourage athletes to focus on training and continued self-empowerment,” said Amina.
With Athletics Kenya focusing to form an athletes’ welfare, Amina said it was a good plan for individual associations to set up such plans to guide their sportsmen and women, while still active and once they retire.
“Sport should be very critical to advance a future perspective by investing in ventures that bring income and maintain savings to sustain your families even when your athletics days are over. That is why I applaud Athletics Kenya’s initiative to support the establishment of Athletes’ welfare Association to drive the agenda,” said Amina.
She also urged sports federations to submit their annual budgets on time to ensure that the ministry prepares for international events.
“In order to improve efficiency, I call on all sports organizations to present their annual calendar of events to the ministry on or before 20th December 2019 to allow proper and adequate planning. Adhoc requests for funding will not be considered,” said Amina.
She added that the ministry is working with the county governments in nurturing talent at the grassroots with vigour.
“We are engaging the county government to capacity building and collaboration to establish talent academies across the country,” added Amina.
