Kenya orders junior athletes to hand over passports

Kenya's Minister for Sport Maina Kamanda said he had ordered junior athletes to hand over their passports to the country's athletics body.

"I have ordered that Athletics Kenya take and keep passports of all the junior athletes who were at the World Junior Championships in Beijing to protect them from exploitation," Kamanda told Reuters.

"It has come to my notice that junior athletes are exposed to exploitation by unscrupulous agents, who woo them from school and race them abroad without regard to their education," said Kamanda.

The athletics board would return the passports to any athletes seeking to travel during school holidays. Kenyan juniors won the overall title at the World Championships and received almost $185,000 as a reward.