Sports CS Amina approves Sh20 million for KPL players

The Ministry of Sports has released Sh20 million that will help cushion Kenyan Premier League players as the country’s sporting fraternity continues to reel from the effects of Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed disclosed on Tuesday that the Sh20 million is part of the Sh50 million stimulus package set aside from the Sports Fund to cushion sportsmen and women.

Amina said each player will get Sh10,000 monthly for the next three months and that they will continue to roll out the program to other sports in the country for the next 15 days.

“We have thoroughly verified the list of players and have come up with the final list to receive the amount. We arrived at these severe and distressful cases after reviewing the previous list we had been given.

“We have agreed to start with KPL because we know the difficulties they are going through and we shall continue rolling out the program for the next 15 days,” said Amina.

Amina said even though they had started with some cases in athletics, they will start discussion with Athletics Kenya on how athletes will benefit fully from the Covid-19 stimulus package.

Amina said that from next week, they will begin distributing food packages to more sportspersons in distress and appealed to corporates to lend a helping hand to the government.

“I am appealing to all corporates and other well-wishers to come on board and support our sportsmen and women so that they will come out of this pandemic stronger. They have been the pride of this country,” said Amina. “We intend to do this for two or three months hence their support is need.”