Special Olympics Africa is hosting a three-day athletes training and leadership seminar in Nairobi as they seek to reach as many intellectually disabled athletes as possible.

The, programme, the second of its kind since its inception in Namibia last year, is being attended by representatives from six countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania and hosts Kenya.

Special Olympics Africa director of programme development and sports ,Charles Nyambe, said the programme is packaged into three sessions.

Nyambe observed that the level of outreach is still low since most parents prefer to hide their intellectually disabled children indoors for fear of public ridicule.

Kenya is second behind South Africa in the number of intellectually disabled persons registered at 27,000. South Africa has 32,000. "We want to train global messengers and athletes on making speeches to enable them relate with the public including donors," said Nyambe. "We will also train them on the use of information technology including social media.

Our last session will involve sports and coaching where we will be training them on coaching and refeeeing." Nyambe said most of the participants are retired special athletes who need to be nurtured on leadership and utilise their capabilities and experiences.