There was misunderstanding between the Athletics Kenya and the Sports Registrar at the ongoing athletes’ registration in Eldoret.
The misunderstanding arose when the Sports registrar handed over forms to athletes to register as professional athletes in the country with a fee of Kshs 2,000, which angered many athletes, raising complaints on how they arrived at the amount.
But athletics Kenya executive member Barnaba Korir, who was on mission at the Central Secondary school registration centre clarified that the registrar of Sports is setting guidelines on how sports should be managed, which includes professional athletes, who should be registered by either the national of county government to ensure that they are captured into the government system.
“This is to ensure that the athletes are assisted individually and when they are registered, the government will understand if the said person is a bonafide athlete or imposter. Basically, the athlete might turn away because of the kshs 2,000 payment which is a requirement, however, we are requesting that the athlete to continue registering and they don’t have to pay anything but pay later to the registrar,” said Koir.
He said that as a federation, they are working with the government, World Athletics and the federation to have all their documents .
During the registration, Korir stated that the purpose athletes’ registration by the federation is to fight doping among other vices in the sport.
“It is not just athletes but coaches too. We want to know those who are coaching to know if they have requisite coaching skills,” he said.
He warned that come next year, the federation must have gone through the process so that they have information.
“Every single coach must be registered to know if their certificates are certified to have quality people.”
On young athletes, he said “We want to follow up on young athletes to kill the age cheating syndicate. We want to capture that early enough and as they grow to be rightful ages, we have the right people.”