MARSABIT COUNTY ASSEMBLY EMERGED THE VOLLEY BALL CHAMPION IN CASA 2023 GAMES
By Diba Kosi Bilinga
Throughout Last week, Nakuru city hosted over 10,000 visitors majorly comprising of MCA and county assembly staffs who stormed the green city from all corners of the republic. This auspicious occasion was officially opened by Youth and Sport CS Ababu Namwamba in a colorful inaugural ceremony marked by joint assemblies march led by NYS Band from Nakuru County Assembly to ASK Show Ground in line with the well-chosen theme for this year’s games which was “Inculcating Integration and Cohesion through Sports and Diverse Cultures.”
After eventful week long throat cutting competition that comprised of different events ranging from ball games, athletics and traditional songs and dances, the curtains fall on last week Friday evening with a climax of winners award ceremonies in which different counties that had emerged best under different categories were recognized and later awarded.
Marsabit county Assembly emerged the 2023 champion under the volleyball men categories to the surprise of many who never envisaged Marsabit coming that far and ultimately becoming a towering giant and the talk of the region under the stewardship of the Speaker Hon Edin Wario whose leadership was further complemented by the soft spoken head of secretariat and the county Assembly Clerk CPA Mato Chare Mato.
Many people across the breadth of the republic have contrary feelings that nothing good will come out of Marsabit which is often known for the bad and negative news of constant ethnic clashes, perennial drought and famines, abject poverty and marginalization.
It was against all these odds that the volley ball men team fought hard and swayed its way tactfully through the different matches from group stage, round of 16, quarter final, semi-final up and until final stage thereby emerging the best thus brought a trophy home to Marsabit County – the cradle of the Mankind.
The other team from Marsabit which also staged a spirited fight was the AJUA team who were knocked out at semi-final stage and an equally splendid performance was registered by pool team who ascended up to the quarter final in their categories. County Assembly of Kiambu was crowned overall champions in the 4th edition of the County Assembly Sports Association (CASA) games followed by Bungom County Assembly and the host Nakuru County Assembly which was crowned third on aggregates of points earned from different events across different games.
This year tournament was a record breaking since the inception of this CASA Editions in that it registered over 43 County Assemblies which took part in different events across the different games - a clear departure from the previous editions in which the number of county assembly participants are far much lesser.
Final outcomes under the different categories:-
Women table tennis and handball trophies went to Kiambu county Assembly who also topped in the Golf tournament and swimming. Athletics Trophy was taken by Kericho after beating Nandi and Samburu.
Bomet County Assembly shined after silencing the Embu County Assembly at Final in Badminton while Baringo County Assembly danced all the way to the top in men table tennis game after a spirited encounter with Machakos County Assembly at the final.
Nakuru emerged the champions in the Pool table and the AJUA Game closely challenged by West Pokot County Assembly, Nyandarua and Marsabit County Assembly while Darts were tied by Kirinyaga, Baringo and Laikipia.
Droughts trophy went to Kwale County Assembly after close contest with Tana River County Assembly while Makueni County Assembly danced all the way to Ukambani as the chess champions after they elbowed out Muranga and Nyeri county assembly respectively while their neighbor Kitui County Assembly displayed their prowess and took the Scrabble trophy home with ease.
Tug of War Champions went to Trans nzoia county Assembly trailed closely by Vihiga and Kisumu county Assembly. And finally, the climax of it all was the football final match between the Trans Zoia County assembly and their counter part from Kakamega County Assembly in which Trans nzoia emerged the champion after gruel encounter that culminated into the post-match penalties at the ASK grounds.
In his closing speech, CASA Chairman Hon. Peter Imatok expressed his gratitude to the hosts Nakuru County led by Speaker Hon. Joel Karuri for the excellent preparations and organization of the tournament. He further saluted the security team for a splendid job done as they worked overnight to ensure the security of the participants and residents throughout the entire period.
The winners in different categories will now proceed to represent Kenya in East Africa Local Authorities Sports and Cultural Association (EALASCA) games that are slated for December later this year and expected to bring together Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi with Kigali-Rwanda preferred as the venue.
Notable gaps in this CASA Games
The primary participants in these games were Hon Member of County Assemblies alongside their equally honorable staffs of the various county Assemblies. Therefore, it is imperative that CASA Games rules be strictly adhered to because there were widespread claims of some county assemblies vouching and bringing along some none county assembly staff members infamously referred to as “Mamlukis” with the skills and talents in some predetermined events who were playing for certain clubs in their respective region.
To stamp out this challenge, proper pre-screening and verification of all the team at the onset of any event is of essence going forward. Another observation is that, for the CASA Games to easily realize all its set objectives and vision, some of these events ought to have been separated and scheduled across different season and time.
Suffice to say that CASA should borrow a script from how High schools games activities were planned and rolled out with athletics competition scheduled for first term and ball games slated later for the second terms alongside music festivals.
The above proposal is critical in that a keen observation on CASA games past editions has pasted a picture of an unequal level field among the county assemblies because of their numeric strength and variation in number of Hon Members and their staffs in which counties with small numbers do strain much in fielding team for different events which at times are happening concurrently in different venues far apart to the advantage of those county assemblies with enough personnel who had the luxury of fielding players for almost all the events thus often ending up scooping several trophies thereby tilting the overall rating of the counties games performance outcomes unfairly.
Finally, the an unsubstantiated claims of CASA being synonymous with Nairobi or Nairobi controlling the CASA Games is still an elephant in the room even though some happening in this year’s 4th edition proved the contrary.
This aside, the CASA officials together with the technical bench and not forgetting the juries deserved a tap in the back for doing what is manly possible on matters surrounding planning, organizing, facilitating and above all coordinating this resource intensify massive sporting activities which is just but getting better.
Long live CASA Games! Long live the devolution! Long live County Assemblies!
Mr. Bilinga is an Information Scientist, Peace & Security Advocate and a Presidential Award Holder. He is currently a Youth Mentor at YALI, East Africa – a signature project of the former USA President Barack Obama.