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The State has been urged to put more focus on para-sports and in particular para-athletes in its sports development plan by providing more funding opportunities and equipment to rowers.

Persons living with disability (PWD) from Juja and Ruiru sub-counties, in Kiambu, defied all odds to shine in rowing and canoe games.

The group identified – as Ruiru Rowing and Canoe Club – have produced Pararowers and Paracanoe athletes who have been representing the country in Paralympics across the globe.

The Kiambu-based team that has been training at Rock Beach Hotel inside the vast titanic dam at Murera Ward, Juja was formed to help PWDs beat stigma and trauma associated with their incapacities as well as offer them a platform to realize and hone their talents.

Led by Josephine Nyamu, who has been coaching the sportsmen and women, the team that has been training for three days together with their Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) counterparts is the only one that participates in rowing and canoe sports in the country.

Both KPA and RRCC teams have been training in preparation for the National team selection competitions for Paralympics set to be held in Mombasa on July 1.

“We brought KPA on board to motivate and inspire them so that we can exchange our expertise. We have produced very talented Para rowers and Para canoers who have been lifting the Kenyan flag high in major events across the world. We only began as a small team that sought to train and go for our dreams only to become the best in the country,” said Nyamu.

Mark Mwangi, the head of sports at KPA said that the teams are a testimony that disability is not an inability noting that they have inspired many Kenyans with diverse physical challenges to join the sport.
“Most of the team members here are physically challenged and with their physical outlook, you cannot imagine they can row and canoe inside the deep water of seas and a dam like this that has hard water.

This is a great testimony that the physically challenged can do anything with empowerment,” commented Mwangi.

The officer called on parents to stop hiding their differently abled children and instead expose them to the world to exploit their sporting potential.

Swaleh Fakii Yunus, the head coach for the two teams called on the government as well as corporates to support the groups lamenting that they have been undergoing a myriad of challenges including a lack of up-to-standard training equipment such as boats.