Some individuals are operating as coaches without qualification documents, Athletics Kenya (AK) has said.

The current registration of athletes has revealed a lack of standardised certification for coaches and technical staff in the country, as the number of runners and coaches registered so far reached 5,000 at the weekend.

The disclosure was made when a registration team from AK briefed federation president Jack Tuwei and Chief Administrative Officer Susan Kamau, at the Nyahururu Stadium in Laikipia County last week.

Tuwei and Kamau had made an impromptu visit to Nyahururu, where the registration was taking place for athletes from Nyandarua and Laikipia counties, as well as members of the disciplined forces camped in the town.

“It emerged that 90 per cent of coaches in Kimilili (Bungoma) hold no certificates to show they have been trained as coaches,” the officials stated.

In contrast, 80 per cent of coaches in Nyahururu had some form of certification. The one-and-a-half-day exercise at the high-altitude Nyahururu Stadium registered a total of 390 athletes and coaches, bringing the nationwide tally so far to 5,170 people.

This number includes doctors, masseurs, physiotherapists and chaperons who serve as contact persons for athletes. It has also come to light that many individuals possess various “coaching and technical certificates,” making it difficult to determine which documents can be accepted as a standard qualification.

Following this revelation, the team emphasized the need for AK to validate these documents. The certificates are mostly obtained from short courses at local universities, training organized by AK regional bodies and county government sports departments. One coach even presented a certificate obtained from China.

The team recommended the standardization of qualification certificates and urged coaches to take the World Athletics Level One course, which is free and available online. The AK president and the registration team were surprised to find that one 40-year-old athlete had a travel passport but no national identification card.

Additionally, some junior athletes who had acquired passports using their parents’ documents had failed to apply for new passports after obtaining their IDs at age 18. This has caused discrepancies between the details in their passports and IDs.

Athletes without IDs or with differing details between their IDs and passports were registered, but their “registration will be treated as incomplete and hence remain pending” until they provide the proper documents. “Let the athletes and coaches know that from January 2025, anyone over 18 years old will not receive service from AK without an ID,” Tuwei stated.

Tuwei, Kamau and the entire team were amused to learn that one of the applicants, veterinarian who is not a competing athlete.

Tuwei asked how he would benefit from the registration. “It is running that helped me recover from a bout of depression. I might run competitively one day,” said Gitonga, who has eight years of experience treating animals.