The National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) has petitioned a National Assembly Sports Committee to push for increased allowances for Team Kenya ahead of the Olympics to be held in Paris, France.
Team Kenya is scheduled to take part in the Olympics that are slated for July 26th to August 11th this year.
NOCK officials led by their president Dr. Paul Tergat told the Committee that the current allowances are too little and should be reviewed.
Speaking when they appeared before the Committee meeting chaired by Dan Wanyama (Webuye West), NOCK Secretary General Francis Mutuku said players were paid Ksh26,000 while officials received Ksh39,000.
“We urge the Committee to consider pushing for increment of training allowances for players who are currently paid Kshs. 1,000 per day,” said Mutuku.
New allowances for Team Kenya
In his response, Wanyama who concurred with NOCK asked the organisation to prepare a proposal of the new allowance rates and submit to the Committee for action.
Regarding the status of preparedness ahead of the competition, Tergat said: “Proper systems have been put in place to ensure successful preparation of Team Kenya that will fly our flag in Paris.”
“This season, the team will prepare better than before,” he added.
In addition, Mutuku said that NOCK had secured a training Camp at Miramas City in France where the team will be expected to train before travelling to Paris.
“We have partnered with Miramas city to host the team for free .We will benefit from technical support from French coaches. The camp will provide a good final kick off for Team Kenya before departing for Paris,” he added.
He further noted that the team will arrive at the camp on July 1st and depart five days to Olympics games’ the kick off.
10,600 Athletes will represent the country during the Olympics games.
“Athletics is the country’s main menu at the Olympics but we will have other teams like Rugby’s Shujaa and Women Volleyball team Malaika Strikers, boxing and tennis among others,” said the NOCK official.
Reputation risk for Team Kenya at Olympics
Meanwhile, NOCK revealed that they had partnered with Deloitte to provide risk advisory.
“Kenya’s reputation was dented following the Tokyo Olympics fiasco. We have brought in Deloitte to deal with the reputation risk,” he added.
