The government is focused on nurturing young and upcoming talents from the grassroots.
Youth Affairs, Creative Economy, and Sports Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen has said the future of sports in the country was bright and with substantial earnings.
“The government of Kenya is the top sponsor, and the Ministry of Sports, through the Sports Fund, has made a significant contribution as the surest way to grow talent and to reward sportsmen and women,” said Murkomen.
Murkomen stated that part of the plans within the Talanta Hela initiative is to support sports such as marathons that nurture the young generation.
“We are working with Athletics Kenya (AK) as a ministry to sponsor sports,” he noted.
The CS noted that in the Talanta Hela initiative, the government wants to prioritise the young generation under 20, especially those in primary and secondary school.
“I have given directives to the Kenya Academic Sports; we want to focus more on the issue of the younger generation who are in school; that is why we are putting resources in the school’s national competition for both primary and secondary, and we are financing to a tune of over Sh 1 billion. We want to put resources where we are going to grow our talent,” stated the CS.
Speaking during the Second Edition of the Chepsaita Cross Country Run in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, Murkomen noted that there are 54 camps being run by AK across the country, and in the camps there are almost 3,000 children who are training in athletics and who have been selected from both primary and secondary school games.
“We want to train our young generation and return our steeplechase and become the conquerors of world athletics once more,” he said.
He said Kenya’s academic sports are currently hosting about 3000 young people below 17 years old, who are going through training in football, rugby, volleyball, basketball, and any other sports as per the plan of the Talanta Hela program.
“We want to make sure that our athletes, when they leave high school, have an opportunity in the university, and that is why such marathons are important, as it brings together sports and education, as we want our athletes to be educated as they run,” stated the CS.
The CS acknowledged the significant challenge posed by Gender Based Violene (GBV) and sexual abuse in sports, assuring that the Ministry has inaugurated a team to deal with the issue.
“This is a serious problem, and we need to face it, especially in areas where athletes are training. We must condemn GBV, and we must expose the predators pretending to be coaches or even spouses of athletes,” Murkomen said.
He announced that our famous athletes and retired athletes will be given diplomatic passports.
“We have started the discussion with the Ministry of Interior to see that the vetting process is passed and which calibre of athletes with what level of consistency will be awarded the diplomatic passport,” said the CS.
By Judy Too
