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Ministry to review cash rewards for medal winning athletes, Sports CS announces

Ministry to review cash rewards for medal winning athletes, Sports CS announces
Selected members of Team Kenya upon arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi from the World Cross Country Championships in Australia. PD/ DAVID NDOLO
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The government of Kenya through the Ministry of Sports is set to review the rewards policy for galant sports personalities and teams in the country who toil to bring glory home in global arenas.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has hinted that Kenya’s Athletics team that conquered the word in emphatic fashion during last weekend’s World Cross Country Championships in Australia could be the first to benefit from the new rewards program.

“We are instituting a review of our reward framework to our most treasured resources in Kenya,the athlete.We want to invest in welfare,we want to reward our winners better.

We have made it a key priority at the ministry to demonstrate that indeed we are ready to protect our country’s premium resources by taking good care of our sportsmen and women,” said Namwamba.

Currently, there has been just corridor talks on gifting our world beaters especially in athletics but nothing tangible has been put into the rule book for reference.

As of today, Kenya’s gold medalist is believed to be entitled to a Sh1m reward from government.

Silver medalist would bag Sh 750,000 while bronze medalist is said to be entitled to a half a million. Managers,team coaches have also been left out of the reward system.

With the review talks spearheaded by CS Namwamba,there is a probability that the matter will be cleared once and for all, if the recommendations will be officially gazetted.

There have been out cries from members of the public on how our sporting heroes and heroines have been treated despite flying our flag high in various global competitions.

Our fast rising athletics,noisy neighbours Uganda have continued to pose a challenge to Kenya on how they receive and reward their world champions.

The UG government has been stretching their muscles to even gift their athletes with vehicles and parcels of land.

Should the new system be established in Kenya, it may as well aide in reducing the number of local athletes switching affiliations to run for the countries.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s cross country team that topped the world in Australia received a warm welcome as it jetted back home from Sydney yesterday.

Despite heavy competition from east Africa’s top crème long distance runners, Kenya managed to reclaim the overall team title that it had lost to Ethiopia in 2019.

Kenya managed to bag ten medals to stand tall on the medal table ahead of perennial rivals Ethiopia.

Team captain Kibiwott Kandie was delightful for the cross country success once again.

“Am happy for what we managed to achieve in Even though it was tough,we gave our best for our country and our people.

We thank all spectators who supported us both in Bathurst and back home,” Kandie told People Daily Sports.

After the World Cross Country, focus now shifts to truck season and local athletes will looking for to better their times in different competitions such as the Diamond League which is set for May commencement and World Athletics Championships scheduled for Budapest, Hungary later this year.

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