Kenya Lifts Ban on Participation in Athletics With South Africa

Kenya has ended a 15-year ban on sports ties with South Africa and has opened the way for athletes from each country to compete in the other.

The Kenya National Sports Council sent a letter to its 39 affiliated associations Wednesday telling them they were free to invite South Africans to compete in Kenya or to send athletes to events in South Africa.

Kenya became the first nation to formally renew ties with South Africa, and the move is all the more significant because Kenya had been one of South Africa’s severest critics.

The announcement came two weeks after a visit to Kenya by South African President F.W. De Klerk.

South Africa has been isolated from the international sports community because of its policy of racial segregation.

Kenya joined other African countries in a boycott of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal because New Zealand had sent a rugby squad on a tour of South Africa earlier that year.

In 1977, the nations of the British Commonwealth agreed to end all sporting contact with South Africa. Kenya is the first member of the Commonwealth to renew ties with South Africa.