KENYA TO MISS ZONE V FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 19 YEARS DUE TO LACK OF FINANCES, BROKE KGU SAY THEY DELAYED TO SUBMIT TEAM’S BUDGET TO GOVERNMENT
Top amateur and national team player Edwin Mudanyi (left) at a past tournament.
By DANIELLA APIYO
The Kenya National Golf Team will miss the Africa Zone V Golf Championships for the first team in nineteen years.
Ironically, the team is crippled due to lack of finance, just weeks after the corporate world and government splashed millions of Shillings into The Kenya Open Golf Championships which lasted for four days at the Muthaiga Golf Club.
Various government agencies splashed over Sh100 million into the annual leg of the European Challenge Tour last month but now the national team which represents the country, is unable to travel to Harare, Zimbabwe to honour the Zone Five event.
Ordinarily, the government through Sports Kenya takes care of preparations, travel and accommodation of all national teams but the Kenya Golf Union (KGU) players will have to sit this one out as money was not availed from the government.
KGU chairman Richard Wanjala, however, absolved the government from blame over the debacle saying the union failed to give a budget to the government in good time. “The government has been very supportive to the sport for the past two years providing air tickets and other forms of assistance to national teams. I have no doubt they would have done the same for this tournament,” Wanjala said.
KGU Chairman Richard Wanjala.
He added: “A number of reasons culminated in Kenya not being represented in the championships but all is not lost. First, Kenya is no longer in Zone Five. A new Zone, Four, has been created comprising eight countries therefore our right of participation in Zone five ceased. We could only do so upon invitation. The new Zone Four ought to organize its equivalent tournament instead.”
“We are all disappointed of course but not a single player had been named as part of the team. From the onset there were doubts over our participation so we did not go for it. The only neighbouring country that sent a team is Uganda,” Wanjala said
The new zone is made up of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Madagascar, Re Union Islands with Sudan still hesitant on joining. Rwandan Doctor Kash and Githiaka Muchau of Kenya are the chairman and secretary general of the new zone. The duo will serve a two-year term in which the Zone Four secretariat ought to be fully functional with Kenya as its base. nike air max trainers nike air max trainers