Cheer as Governor Kibwana reaches out to pool-paying youth

Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana hugs a pool billiards champion during pool tournament finals at a makeshift pool room in Wote Town on Friday, June 17, 2016, as his deputy Adelina Mwau, and fans, look on.The county government organized the event to reach out to the youth, and pool enthusiasts. PHOTO: PIUS MAUNDU

BY PIUS MAUNDU

@piusmaundu

piusmaundu@yahoo.com

They have played and won countless pool games, but a group of 300 fine pool billiards players from across Makueni County say they were stunned when Governor Kivutha Kibwana sat on makeshift pews in pool rooms in Wote Town and cheered them on as they played against one another. 

The county chief slipped away from his Friday afternoon official duties and, accompanied by his deputy Adelina Mwau and senior county executives, joined hundreds of spectators at the finals of a pool challenge that had started at the grassroots and brought the finest players together. 

“At first I was petrified playing as the governor cheered, but then I grew bolder, and I resolved to play harder lest I lose before the government officials,” a champion Christopher Mwanthi told said yesterday.   

To Mr Mwanthi, 35, who operates pool tables at Emali Town, and who won a pool table for shinning at the tournament, the governor’s gesture of participating at the games motivated the players. 

“Traditionally we are looked down upon as wayward idlers who abuse drugs, but he overlooked all that and mingled with us: and that was motivating,” he said on phone.

Asked after his winning formula, he said that it took him only precision in shooting, a trait he said could had been lacking among the players he floored “because they were tensed.”

Another champion who did not make it to the finals said that he played pool to pass time, and make money. 

“After graduating from high school in 2009, I started playing pool at Ndauni Market in Masongaleni Ward,” said Musyoki Muindi, 30, who had travelled from Ndauni Market in Masongaleni Ward, adding: “I later acquired a motorcycle that I use as a boda boda at the market when I am not playing pool.”

His story resonated with that of many other players who we interacted with, some like Mr Titus Mbuvi who had travelled from Makindu Town, saying that they depended on pool games entirely for their livelihoods. 

A native of Kitui County, Mr Muindi said he relocated to Makindu Town ten years ago where he worked as an attendant at a pool table business before he acquired his own table through a bank loan.

“The assertion that pool rooms harbor criminals is a wild misconception,” said the 35-year-old father of three, adding that as an owner of such a facility, he only accommodated people well-known to him. 

To go round the stereotypes associated with pool games, the players advised, the government should mainstream the game. 

As the county glitterati thronged their ways through fans and ebbed from one pool room to the next, it was evident they were lost at a point of the game. 

But soon the ice was broken and Ms Mwau offered fist bump greetings to champions, as Prof Kibwana embraced and hugged players whose spectacular shots send the spectators cheering and ululating. 

“Telling from what I have seen in the games, the assertion that those who play pool are alcoholics is farfetched: One needs to be sober to attain the required precision to pocket the balls,” he said. 

He added: “As the county government, we used this tournament as one of the ways to reach out to the youth who we have realized may not frequent churches and would shun invites to public barazas.”

He urged the youth to come together as self help groups and take advantage of cheap loans and business opportunities that the government offered.

Residents: New railway line is not good enough

BY PIUS MAUNDU

@piusmaundu

piusmaundu@yahoo.com

Communities living near the standard gauge railway line will face challenges accessing water and electricity across the railway once the project is completed, it has emerged.

A meeting between community leaders, government administrators, Kenya Railways Corporation and the railway builder in Makindu Town on Tuesday heard that the design of the railway line lacks conduits to pass water, electricity and other utilities.

“It’s true the new railway design lacks provisions for these conduits,” said Mr John Nyandiko, a Kenya Railways engineer.

Acknowledging that the railway designers erred by not installing the provisions for the service wayleaves, Mr Nyandiko said that he would consult relevant authorities for a possible review of the project design, something the community leaders dismissed as a tall order.

They complained that their previous bids to get undesirable aspects of the Sh 327 billion project revised have been unsuccessful.

“We have complained about underpasses that are not passable, and lack of channels of channeling storm water away from our homes but none of these aspects have been reworked,” said Mr Kyengo Mutavi.

He singled out a underpass near Kiboko Market that doubles as a channel to drain storm water, decrying that its double usage will inconvenience communities determined to access either side of the railway line during the rain season.  

“Currently, its a difficult to get water pipelines across the old railway line,” said Mr Mutavi, registering his fear that with the huge embankment that characterizes the new railway line, it would be more impossible to move the services across.  

Area Sub-County Commissioner Ms Naomi Mwangi, who chaired the meeting, concurred that the absence of the service ducts is potentially inconveniencing.

“I am going to write to Kenya Railways to ensure that your complaints addressed,” she told the community members.

She urged the railway contractor to move with speed and stop damaging roads while delivering building materials, to stop blowing dust on villagers and to address emerging complaints by the community members.

Mr Goodluck Zeng, a CRBC official told the meeting that he could not understand how the utility passages were missing out on the project design since Kenya Power and water companies had been consulted at the design stage.

However, he said that in future utility service providers will not lack ways of getting their services across the railway line and the the villagers should not panic.

According to reports, the Chinese contractor is almost done with civil works on the Mombasa-Nairobi railway line.

World Special Olympics team leaves for America

BY PIUSMAUNDU

@piusmaundu

piusmaundu@yahoo.com

A delegation of 51 athletes, 14 coaches and three officials left the country yesterday for Los Angeles, United States to participate in the 2015 edition of World Special Olympics.

The event, purposed to empower individuals with intellectual disabilities shatter stereotypes, will take place between 25th July and 2nd August this year.

Special Olympics Kenya Sports Manager Ms Susan Masila exuded confidence that the Kenyan team will emerge triumphant. 

“We are ready bring home gold medals,” Ms Masila told Nation in a telephone interview, sentiments that were echoed by Mr Boniface Makumi, the national football coach. 

“We have trained well,” said Mr Makumi, adding: “We have some of the finest athletes who have shone in other international assignments and none of our players is nursing injuries.” 

This year’s World Special Olympics is expected to bring together 6,500 athletes and 2,000 coaches from 165 countries.

According to Ms Masila, the Kenyan team will compete in athletics, beach volleyball, football, swimming, and basketball.

Pay each family that lost kin in Garissa attack Sh 2 million, university students tell government

BY PIUS MAUNDU

@piusmaundu

piusmaundu@yahoo.com

Pay each family that lost kin in  Garissa attack Sh 2 million, university students tell government

The government should pay at least Shs2 million to each of the families that lost their kin in the Garissa University College terror attack, university students said yesterday. 

In addition, the students want the government to “completely restructure and overhaul” the country’s security system, and to install a memorial stone to remember their 142 colleagues killed by gunmen on Thursday.

Speaking yesterday in Nairobi when they marched to the Office of the President to present the raft of interventions following tragedy, the students drawn from both public and private universities said that the government had failed to secure university students. 

“We are here to mourn our departed colleagues and tell the government that as a generation we are not ready to die,” said Felix Okumu, a Kenyatta University student.

He said that governments are mandated to protect their citizens and that the Garissa attack showed that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government was performing dismally in that front. 

“You cannot pay life and you cannot even pay for the future of the youths killed,” said Mr Okumu adding that the Shs2 million compensation would be a goodwill gesture by the government to the bereaved families who had invested heavily and had high hopes in their children. 

Similar sentiments were echoed by several other students who joined the procession through Kenyatta Avenue, Kimathi Street, Moi Avenue before culminating on Harambee Avenue. 

“We need the government erect a police post near each university,” said Vincent Opara bemoaning that currently universities are manned by unarmed guards. 

Except for chanting and waving of twigs and bougainvillea flowers by the youth in dozens, the procession largely peaceful. 

At Moi Avenue next to the statute of Tom Mboya, they lit candles, prayed and sang, occasionally vowing not to forget their “comrades,” the popular euphemism for college colleagues. 

Bystanders who initially seemed unsettled as the chanting youth approached soon engaged their smartphones and clicked as the trail of passed with ice cream vendors in pursuit. 

Nelly Chepngetich, a woman who followed the procession from the National Archives said: “When our children are being killed, it is hurting for us parents.”

The single mother of six challenged parents to reign on their children, especially teenagers not to end up training as extremists. 

Among the students in the procession Wilson Muema, an Economics and Finance student at Kenyatta University poignantly held up an enlarged mugshot of Cyrus Sila Mutuku, one of the students fallen by the jihadists’ bullets. 

“He was my closest friend,” explained the teenager. “We schooled together in high school and I was more than shocked to learn that he was among those killed by al-Shabaab.”

Just like the rest of the students, Mr Muema said that he expected the government to beef up security at universities. 

“If the government will have a response unit close to all universities the rate of casualties in the event of an attack would be minimized,” said Mcnab Bwonde, a Technical University of Kenya student. 

Outside the Office of the President, the students chanted some more and taunted security officers manning the government offices. 

“We have presented our demands,” said Mr Okumu when a group that had accessed the offices housing the Ministry of Interior and Coordination emerged. 

The students said that they will follow up to see that their demands are acted upon, and should the petition be shelved they would picket. 

So far, the government through the Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has pledged to foot all the funeral expenses of the 148 people killed in the attack, something the students felt was not enough. 

 “We don’t want a government who will just buy a coffin and hire a hearse to transport the bodies for burial,” Mr Okumu said. 

“This is not what the youths who perished were expecting.” 

On the possibility that terror groups could be eyeing universities for recruitment, Pelly Maganga, a Moi University student leader challenged his colleagues to have their priorities right. 

“As students we need to change our perspectives on how we need to lead our lives,” he said.