Economy boost as national sec sch games kicks off
The Kenya secondary school national games championship in Basketball, hockey, rugby and swimming officially kicked off at Friends school Kamusinga and Moi girls Kamusinga on Tuesday after being officially opened by Bungoma governor Ken Lusaka who appreciated the organizers for having chosen his County as the host of this year’s championship.
Addressing the participants during the opening ceremony Lusaka said it is a privilege to host students from all the forty seven counties of the country saying it is opportunities for the students to showcase their talents as the stakeholders also have an opportunity of identifying them to join national teams in each category.
He disclosed that as a County that has participants in some of the games they have strategies through the ministry of sports of ensuring they help the brilliant students achieve their goals in life saying the students must not only concentrate on academics only.
With the students and teachers coming from various backgrounds Governor Lusaka called upon them to interact freely so as to find out something new and unique about the other saying the event should be a unifying factor among the participants.
On his part the coordinator of co-curricular activities from the ministry of education Jackson Ikigu called upon the participating teams to maintain discipline as they play saying the officials have to follow strictly the rules of the game to have no bias allegation coming up.
He further added that as a ministry they are keen on ensuring transparency is achieved in all the games saying the students talents must be nurtured on merit and no school will be favored during the tournament.
Mr. Ikigu also took the opportunity to advice the students not to concentrate only in the co curricular activities but also in their studies back at school saying after their four years in school they have to come out having merited before joining university.
Brookside dairy brand manager Margaret Nyoro the main sponsors of the event said the company has pumped in 14 million shillings for sponsorship saying they have bought players kits as well as uniform to ensure they play comfortably.
She further dislosed that they have a partnership with Strathmore university where they will be offering sponsorship to four basket basketball players as well as two hockey players saying they have to score a mean grade of A- and above.
Business boost
With the championship hosting more than four thousand people business lodging and hotel business in Kimilili town has been boosted as the participants are flocking the joints for food and accommodation respectively.
A spot check in the busy Kimilili town revealed that all the lodging were fully booked and some of the participants who arrived late had to look for accommodation in the nearby towns of Chwele, Kamkuywa, Bungoma and Webuye.
Philip Wamalwa a manager at Royal hotel in Kimilili said he had rooms average from 500 to 1000 shilling and they were fully booked before the championship began saying it has really boosted their business.
Another businessman Dalton Simiyu selling foodstuffs at the event said Kamusinga hosting the national games came in as a blessing as they had had an opportunity to sell their food and have to up their game since many people in the business have also flocked the school to try their luck.
