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Kenya Rugby Union is in the process of formulating policy framework that will ensure local players both current and former Internationals are subjected to insurance benefits and pension schemes.
There has been government push to widen its medical insurance cover for sports persons by increasing the number of beneficiary athletes and including contractual coaches and support staff from this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Kenya Rugby Union President Oduor Gangla, there is need to provide rugby players who forms the basis of national sportsmen and sportswomen with a welfare fund and insurance coverage.
“As KRU together with our partners, we are doing our best to put proper strategies in place geared towards implementing a program which will entail provision of insurance policies and pension schemes to our players both plying their trade now and even those who retired. It’s good for the sport considering how these people sacrifice much for the game”
According to BBC report,more than half of former professional sportspeople have had concerns about their mental or emotional well-being since retiring due to hard living conditions.
According to the survey,retired athletes said they “lose their identity” when they finish playing sport, experiencing “loss”, “regret” and “devastation”.
The move by KRU has been necessitated by the situation that faced the late ex head coach of Kenya 7s national team Benjamin Ayimba who relied from contributions through friends and well wishers to cater for his accrued medical bill at a Nairobi hospital.
The departed Kenya Rugby legend passed away on Friday night after a long battle with cerebral malaria, and despite the glory he brought to Kenya especially after inspiring Shujaa to landmark victory during 2016 Singapore 7s,there was no proper medical plan for him to take care of his hospital expenses.
The need for assured monthly income through annuity for outstanding sports persons has become imperative due to the fact that they spend prime of their youth in pursuit of intensive training, sacrificing other beneficial opportunities normally available.
The assured monthly income will be a compensation for the opportunities spurned by them in pursuit of their high ambition and achievement in sports.
Last year,Senators asked the government to re-consider exempting Kenyan athletes on paying tax locally on money earned from international races abroad.
While making their contributions during the debate on the Anti-Doping Amendment Bill , the Senators decried that the double taxation element was killing the athletes’ morale.
“It is so paining when our young people are running hard through their sweat and blood, they win and then they are taxed in the host countries and back at home as well and then you want them to be Brand Kenya,” Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei pleaded
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