Kenya Academy of Sports expands national talent camps to seven regions

The Kenya Academy of Sports (KAS) is currently hosting its third National Sports Talent Camp, a programme that has steadily expanded since its launch in 2023, aimed at identifying, nurturing, and preparing young athletes for national and international competition.

The initiative began in 2023 with a single camp in Nairobi, which brought together approximately 2,000 students. In 2024, the programme expanded to four regions—Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Eldoret— doubling participation to 4,000 athletes. This year, the camp has grown further to cover seven regions, namely Nairobi, Mombasa, Nyeri, Wajir, Eldoret, Kisumu, and Kakamega, while maintaining a total of 4,000 participants.

According to Kenya Academy of Sports CEO Dr. Doreen Odhiambo, the expansion is designed to promote regional inclusivity and ensure that talented students from all parts of the country have an equal opportunity to be identified and developed ahead of school games and national team selections.

“The aim of this talent camp is to ensure that the best students identified during school games are trained further and exposed to higher levels of competition,” said Dr. Odhiambo.

She explained that the camps focus on advanced training, cross-regional exposure, and fair national team selection, while also enabling KAS to build a national database of athletes. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Education and various national sports federations, whose scouts participate in identifying promising talent.

The camps currently feature 12 sports disciplines, including football, rugby, hockey, basketball, swimming, tennis, chess, table tennis, lawn tennis, amputee football, sitting volleyball, and goalball. While not all disciplines are available in every region due to infrastructure limitations, athletes are placed in the nearest centres with suitable facilities.

Looking ahead, KAS plans to select about 400 top athletes from the current camps to attend an Elite Camp in Nairobi in February, during the half-term break. The elite camp will form part of preparations for the 2026 Youth Olympics in Dhaka, with success measured by strong representation of camp graduates in junior national teams.

Since 2023, the programme has already produced athletes who have progressed to overseas opportunities, national basketball and football teams, and development initiatives such as AC Talanta. However, Dr. Odhiambo acknowledged that “a lot still needs to be done” to fully develop sports talent across the country.

Parents and schools have increasingly embraced the initiative, with some institutions now sponsoring students to continue training during school holidays. Future plans include holding camps during the April, August, and December holidays, extending training periods when funding allows, and introducing international scouts, as well as mentorship and financial literacy programmes through corporate partnerships.

Speaking at the camp, Camp Chair Thuo Cege praised the programme’s impact, noting that it not only keeps children engaged during school holidays but also sharpens their sporting abilities.

“Kenya has abundant raw talent, both in individual and team sports, and it is our responsibility to nurture it,” he said.

Other camp officials urged sports federations to prioritise structured talent development pathways, emphasizing that national team selections should be drawn from athletes identified and developed through the Kenya Academy of Sports talent camps.