Take golf to the people
Then-Kenya Golf Union (KGU) chairman Richard Wanjala came up with an ambitious programme, County Golf Project, in 2018 that envisioned every county having a public golf course to develop the sport.
The easiest way of taking golf—which is still considered elitist—to the masses was by the county governments owning these courses, besides having them as part of their agenda.
Siaya, Kirinyaga and Embu were among the first counties to embrace the idea. They were ready to provide the land but the plan died following the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020.
Wanjala’s predecessors had promised to carry on with his plan by involving the current golf clubs, which are privately owned, to open up by adopting nearby public schools. That would have seen them conduct weekly clinics to interested schools. But that, too, never materialised.
Some years back, the government undertook to develop the nine-hole course at Lenana School to a full 18-hole facility for public use but that project has dragged on.
Wanjala’s ideas resurfaced a week ago, when Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba received the national junior golf girls team back home from the All Africa Junior Golf Championship in Uganda, where they finished third.
Namwamba said the government was ready to work with the 47 counties to develop golf facilities and collaborate with the Junior Golf Foundation and other golfing bodies to develop the sport so that Kenyans can have an opportunity to play it.
It’s not the first time the government is making such promises. Besides, with the country having 42 golf courses in 19 counties, the sport cannot be developed without facilities.
Golf Park, in Nairobi, which is a semi-public course, can’t develop the sport on its own; hence, the Lenana School project must be completed. The government and KGU should also explore ways of putting up a public course on the union’s idle land at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
