Uhuru announces cash reward for Olympic medalists

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday, August 16, hosted Team Kenya representatives at State House, Mombasa, where he honoured the Olympic team’s outstanding performance. He also used the opportunity to announce that the medalists would be awarded cash for their performance as follows:  Ksh 1,000,000 for gold medalists, Ksh 750,000 for silver and 500,000 for bronze medalists.

1/3 President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday received representatives of the triumphant Kenyan contingent to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and announced cash rewards of Shs 1 million, 750,000 and 500,000 for Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists respectively. #TeamKenya🇰🇪 #YouAreTheReason pic.twitter.com/ZGqvV12Idb

— State House Kenya (@StateHouseKenya) August 16, 2021

He further announced a uniform token of Ksh 200,000 for all athletes and officials, including the Paralympics team currently participating in the delayed summer games in Tokyo.

This comes in the wake of heavy criticism over the athletes’ cold reception when they arrived in the country after the Olympics.

Image/ State House Kenya

The President went ahead to thank the World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, who was present,  for their partnership with the country in hosting global sporting events as the 2021 World Under 20 Athletics Championship is set to take place in Kenya.

“It is my profound hope that this will now lay a foundation for Kenya to be the first African country to host the World Athletics Championship,” he said.

President Uhuru also challenged the sporting fraternity to ensure the country continues to excel on the global stage.

Sports CS Amina Mohammed, in a statement read by her Principal Secretary Joe Okudo, thanked the president for his dedication towards the development of Kenyan athletes.

Kenya bagged ten medals during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics- four gold, four silver, and 2 bronze medals, which saw it top the African Medal Chart.

Featured image/ State House Kenya