The French government has trained 12 coaches who will in turn train other 900 coaches in schools in Elgeyo Marakwet county to ensure that athletes in the county are handled by professional coaches.
Noting that his government supports gender equality, the French ambassador to Kenya Arnuad Suquet said the training of the coaches, six of whom were male, was one way of fighting Gender Based Violence.
Speaking in Iten, the ambassador said both genders would have professionally trained coaches while ensuring that male coaches do not take advantage of young female athletes saying GBV has no place in sports nor in the society.
He said France would continue supporting organisations fighting GBV within the sports fraternity like the Tirop angels run by Joan Chelimo who is also an athlete.
Chelimo said the training of coaches was a step in the right direction in the fight against GBV and called on Athletics Kenya to ensure that all coaches are issued with certificates as there were many people pretending to be coaches and, in the process, ended up abusing female athletes.
Chelimo regretted that most of the female athletes do not have professional coaches but were coached by their husbands who ended up getting paid saying there were cases where such athletes ended up losing their properties to the men when marriages broke up.
“I am therefore appealing to AK to sensitise athletes on the need to have agents who will professionally manage their operations,” she said.
She also called for the construction of safe homes where athletes could seek refuge when they are abused saying currently, they run to her organization.
Chelimo also called on more females to train as physio-therapists to handle young girls saying most of the upcoming athletes were abused by male physio-therapists since they required their services but they could not afford.
She said her organization has managed to get counsellors who counsel survivors and also advocates who follow up on their cases in court.
She however called on the Judiciary to fast-track cases of abuse among athletes saying to date, the case involving the murder of Agnes Tirop was yet to be concluded.
by Alice Wanjiru
