LAIKIPIA AND BEYOND UNITY CUP – A SECOND WEEKEND OF SUCCESS

WESTERN UNIT TOURNAMENT

Day 1: Thursday 17 June 2010

You would be forgiven to think that after the four intense days at Nyakio for the Central Unit tournament of the Laikipia and Beyond Unity Cup (LUC), everyone would either be at home nursing sunburns or at a physiotherapist’s trying to get their arms or legs working again. I am however glad to report that the entire team of organizers was on their feet and very excited to make the Western Unit tournament happen. From the plenary meeting on Thursday afternoon with all the stakeholders: the Zeitz Foundation, LWF, BATUK and the rest of the Suyian team (the host for this weekend’s tournament), it was obvious that lessons had been learnt and things would run even more smoothly during the weekend, to everyone’s delight.

Our enthusiasm was met with equal excitement from the community who helped on site, from pitching tents and marking pitches to fetching firewood.

This eagerness was further demonstrated on D-day when the participating teams arrived in time for the registration and all psyched up to prove their football prowess -- aren’t we all anticipating the semi-finals!

Day 2: Friday 18 June 2010

The opening ceremony began with Anne Powys, the Unit Director and host of this weekend’s tournament, delivering a rousing speech. The local chief Mr. Mundia, the headmaster of Ol Maisor School Mr. Sasia, LWF director Anthony King, and Zeitz Foundation Program Director Liz Rihoy followed. The MP for Laikipia West, Hon Ndiritu Muriithi also graced the event, and, in true LUC spirit, brought ‘The Peace Caravan’ with him, led by its chairmen Dr. Lenai, who spread the peace message, leaving the crowd with a peace chant –Amani. Milele (Peace Forever).

The MP and each of the participating teams planted trees in the school grounds with the youngest students, with the intention that as the student progressed through school they would nurse the tree into maturity.

The matches began on schedule after taking the Green pledge acknowledging ones intentions to help conserve the environment.

Kaptuya played Ol Moran in Pool A’ whilst Ol malo met Karandi in B’ – with the matches ending 0-1 and 0-6 respectively. The second set of matches saw Suyian beat Rumuruti Administration 2-0, an exhilarating match that attracted the entire shopping centre, passersby and school children who came to cheer their home team. How sweet to win on home ground! From pool B’, Biba FC and Amani combined battled it out, ending the morning session at 0-0.

The afternoon matches finished as follows:

Ol Moran - Rumuruti Administration: 1-1

Karandi - Biba FC: 1-1

Suyian FC - Kaptuya FC: 0-0

Ol Malo - Amani combined 0-5.

MYSA Kahawa provided football training clinics and environmental education to the children in the community, as part of their community service. They also provided first aid during the football matches, carrying injured footballers off the field in stretchers.

By the end of the day, the medical team had provided treatment to approx. 200 members of the community, and approx. 150 people volunteered for counseling and HIV testing. Similar to what was observed in Nyakio; upper respiratory infection was the most common illness observed and quite a number of patients had arthritis. While the turnout was relatively low compared to the previous week in Nyakio, the team anticipated that more people will show up for treatment in the next few days as the word spreads.

Day 3: Saturday 19 June 2010

As expected, Saturday afternoon was the day of the Semi’s and everyone was looking forward to his or her team performing beyond expectations.

Suyian FC; the local team vs. Rumuruti Biba and Karandi FC Vs. Rumuruti Administration were the teams that got through to the semi-finals, which saw both Rumuruti Biba and Administration drop out.

The teams were treated to a pleasant surprise when Mr. Jochen Zeitz, founder of the Zeitz Foundation, one of the LUC organizers, met them for lunch.

That evening before the World Cup matches, the participating teams watched a 30-minute video followed by a question session on sexual-education aimed at raising awareness of sexually transmitted diseases.

Day 4: Sunday 20 June 2010

On Sunday morning, all the teams in pools A’ and B’ participated in an environmental awareness session. Various organizations made presentations about their contribution to environmental conservation in their areas, among them were the Sosian Centre environmental group who make charcoal briquettes ‘with a twist’….theirs contained cow manure and charcoal dust.

LWF also gave a presentation about some of their activities in the area. And the school choir then ended the session with a song welcoming the teams to the community.

The Groups then separated, some collecting garbage around the centre while the others dug a garbage pit for the local community.

The medical camp saw an influx of patients in the last two days bringing the numbers to approx. 600 with 370 being tested and counseled for HIV/AIDS.

Then came the much-anticipated final game, Suyian FC versus Karandi FC, that brought the western unit tournament to a close. By the end of the second half, both teams were tied to 1 all. This led to a nail biting penalty shoot out. Suyian FC, the local team, came up top scoring the last penalty. The final score was 4-3.

The regional team, Northern Elephants was named amid deafening applause from the fans. From where I stand the event couldn’t have been any more successful!

By Grace Wanjuki