•Several Kenyan athletes have incessantly taken issue with their exclusion from the travelling party even after attaining the qualification mark at national trials.
•Mutuku said they would remain committed to adopting declarations made during the Agnes Tirop Conference to guide reforms in the sports sector.
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya has appealed to the Commonwealth Games Federations to ensure inclusivity in the process of selecting athletes, coaches, and managers for the 2022 Birmingham Games.
Speaking after a meeting held on Friday, Nock secretary-general, Francis Mutuku, reiterated the need for a transparent process to reflect the true spirit of the quadriennial global show.
Mutuku underlined the importance of giving the event adequate publicity to guarantee a level playing field.
“Based on previous games experience, the committee urged the federations to ensure inclusivity in the trials, to include athletes from the grassroots and ensure the communication for these events has been well-publicized to give all Kenyans who qualify an opportunity to be in the team,” said Mutuku.
The development comes in the wake of widespread allegations of favouritism in the selection process that have rocked the country in the recent past.
Several Kenyan athletes have incessantly taken issue with their exclusion from the traveling party even after attaining the qualification mark at national trials.
“It came out strongly for national federations to make their selection criteria public in order to reach all stakeholders with sufficient notice given for national trials, where applicable,” said Mutuku.
Mutuku said they would remain committed to adopting declarations made during the Agnes Tirop Conference to guide reforms in the sports sector.
Key among them is the growing need for affirmative action as the sports fraternity strives to keep in tandem with the constitutional order.
“Nock is also imploring federations to ensure gender balance in appointing officials, with the committee already doing the same in athletes quota distribution,” he said.
“In the spirit of inclusivity, the federations with Para sports will also integrate them in their programs as they prepare towards the games set for July 28 to August 8, 2022.”
The federations also laid bare their plans to conduct their exercises to fill the slots allocated for the Games.
“Most sports are planning for their national trials and qualification events in February and March.”
Kenya will seek to emulate the 2018 Gold Coast Games, where the country bagged four gold, seven silver, and six bronze.
Among the events lined up for the Para sports in Birmingham include the para-athletics, wheelchair basketball 3x3, para-cycling, para lawn bowls, para powerlifting, para-swimming, para-triathlon, and para table tennis.
The individual sports in the Birmingham program are aquatics, athletics, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, judo, lawn bowls, and squash.
Participating nations are also expected to unveil competitors in triathlon, wrestling, table tennis, weightlifting.
Team sports include basketball 3x3, beach volleyball, cricket T20- women, hockey, netball-women, rugby sevens men, rugby sevens women, and table tennis.
So far, two male teams — the National Rugby Sevens Team and the Basketball 3x3 — have qualified for the games while only one female team, the Basketball 3x3, have attained the mark.
The individual sports will qualify through open quota allocation according to the quota given by Commonwealth Games Federation.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) — located in London — is the international organization responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games, and is the governing body of the Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA).