Maluki: Fixing wrangles in federations will boost Kenyan sports

NOCK president Shedrack Maluki said the symposium was to bring cohesion, unity and integrity in all the federations with an aim of bringing more medals and glory to Kenya in all forthcoming international events.

Maluki emphasized on team work and unity, insisting that wrangles and fights among federations’ officials should be things of the past.

“In this symposium, we've achieved a lot as a National Olympic Committee because we brought together all the presidents and secretary generals of the Federation. We know that the federations are like production, as they are the industry of our athletes.”

“I think this is actually important for federations to come together, set their vision, set their goals, their missions for the next four years towards the Los Angeles Olympics,” said Maluki.

The judo Africa boss added that personal interests should be set aside but the target should mainly be tapping and growing the talent with the priority being the athlete.

Former world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge said this was a good move for federations to come up to set their visions and goals together.

“My job is simple, it's to represent the views of the athletes from all the federations. It's to actually give them, you know, those who need education actually to tell them to go to school, to actually inform and represent their views on their well-being to their federation and to the National Olympic Committee,” said Kipchoge, who serves as the Male Athlete Representative at NOC-K.

Kipchoge called on NOCK to make sure that all the federations are treated equally and make a clear goal that every sports body have its vision, work hard and set long term goals.

“My work actually is not to fight, my work is to just represent their views, make sure they're happy, they're comfortable and like.”

On his part, Olympic and world 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi urged athletes to remain committed and maintain a high level of discipline if they are to become world beaters.

“My message to fellow athletes, I want them to be committed, to work hard, to stay focused for this upcoming Olympics and World Championship, because if you look now in Kenya for example, men are losing in many races. We need to get it right. For young athletes, stay focused because Kenyans are looking at us. No short cut as we start early preparations for Los Angeles 2028. Olympics.”

The three-day symposium held in Machakos brought together the Presidents and Secretary Generals of all sports federations ranging from football, field events, volleyball, Rugby, badminton, boxing, taekwondo, wrestling, swimming, Netball among others