 |
| 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
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment