Kenya at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
| Kenya at the 2008 Summer Paralympics |
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| IPC code | KEN | ||||||||
| NPC | Kenya National Paralympic Committee | ||||||||
| in Beijing | |||||||||
| Competitors | 13 | ||||||||
| Flag bearer | Henry Wanyoike | ||||||||
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Medals Ranked 27th |
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| Summer Paralympics appearances | |||||||||
Kenya competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The country's delegation consisted of thirteen competitors captained by three-time Paralympic gold medalist Henry Wanyoike. Also on the team was javelin thrower Mary Nakhumicha. Wanyoike competed in the 5000 metres, 10000 metres, and the marathon.
Kenya sent a thirteen strong team to Beijing, including ten men and three women. The Kenyan team included three-time Paralympic gold medalist Henry Wanyoike, javelin thrower Mary Nakhumicha and athletics competitors Henry Kirwa and Lenny Nasimiyu. It also included Wilson Bii, Erick Sang, Nancy Chelagat, and Henry Sugi.
A number of factors have impacted the development of elite disability sport in Kenya in this period. One factor was negative cultural attitudes towards people with disabilities in general that made it difficult to participate, even if the athlete had won a Commonwealth Games medal. A second variable was coaching issues. These included poor qualifications for coaches, lack of funding for coaches, inconsistent coaching or coaches having hidden agendas for being involved in para-sport, such as a desire to travel overseas. A third issue was lack of available equipment to train with. Part of this was because of the high cost of specialized equipment. Another part was a desire not to spend money on people with disabilities as they are less worthy of the funding. A fourth issue is that facilities are often not accessible to people with disabilities. Sometimes, venues do not want to let people with disabilities use them. Sometimes, facilities lack accommodations for people with disabilities. A fifth problem was transportation. Transportation around cities is often not handicap accessible, making it difficult for elite athletes to get to training venues. Ethnic favoritism was a sixth problem impacting elite para-sport. There was a perception among elite athletes that the government and sporting officials favored certain ethnic groups. According to one elite athlete, for the 2000 Games, the team was dominated by ethnic Luo. For the 2004 Games, the trend was towards ethnic Kikuyu. In athletics, the preference tended to be towards Kalenjin. The last major issue was lack of financial support for participating in sport at the elite level. More Kenyans would have tried to represent their country at the Paralympic level, but they were unable to afford it despite the desire to do so.
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