Para athletes decry alleged 'unfair treatment' over allowances, ahead of world championships

The National Para-athletics team has expressed frustrations over alleged unfair treatment in allowances and support ahead of the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships set for New Delhi, India.

The team claimed each athlete will only receive Ksh.85, 000 for the two-week competition, and are laying claim to the $200 [Ksh 25, 383] daily rate, per athlete, which was a directive of President Ruto to Team Kenya that competed at the Tokyo World Championships, which ended on Sunday.

The athletes also raised concerns of not having a training camp in preparation for the championships, whereas the able-bodied athletes who competed in Tokyo were granted a one month high performance camp.

Samson Ojuka, a long jump para athlete, said they feel effectively sidelined, noting that the disabled require more needs.

“The president issued a directive that world championship athletes receive a minimum of $200 (Ksh.25, 835) per day for allowance. We were shocked to receive only $658 (Ksh.85, 000) for the two-week competition.’

 “The guys who went to Tokyo were in camp for like a month, but we never went for any camp, yet they expect us to do well,” Vincet Mutai, a participant in the 100m and long jump disciplines, said.

 Neema Stacy, a para athlete participating in t100 and 200m sprints, alleged that the response given to them after raising concerns about the camp, was that the government would not be able to fund the training. They had to dig from their pockets and utilize their own resources for training, they claimed.

“The training has been hard. We’ve been forced to dig into our pockets because unfortunately we were not put in the camps,’ she lamented.

The athletes jet off Wednesday night, for the championship that is set to run from September 27 to October 5.