Federation of East Africa Schools Sports Association (FEASSA) President Justus Mugisha has praised Kenya for quality sports facilities.

Mugisha also showered praise on western Kenya enthusiasm for sports, pointing out that massive interest an incentive to grant the county another chance to host the games.

The turnout during matches – irrespective of the countries playing – has been massive.

Interviewed during the ongoing East Africa school games competitions in Kakamega, western Kenya, Mugisha said the well-established infrastructure will continue serving Kenyans for a long time even after the school games.

He also commended the Kakamega county government for good reception offered to the visitors participating in the East Africa games.

Due to the good reception, Mugisha said that Kakamega County will be considered to host other editions of FEASSA games if fans will behave well during this year’s edition.

“If these games end very well and you continue to behave well, especially the fans of Kakamega, we are likely to give you another chance in the coming years for us to come back to this very stadium because we are very happy with the standards of hosting so far,” he assured.

He said the tournament has attracted over 4,000 students from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ivory Coast with Kenya having over 1,800 students followed by Uganda, which has above 1600.

“The quality of infrastructure being used, the fields are first-class and I can assure you the students are enjoying themselves. The quality of play is very high,” he added.

Mugisha noted that the East Africa school games have the capacity of transforming the region into a sports powerhouse.

He said this has been noted even as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are on the verge of edge of qualifying for the second round of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) for the first time ever in the history of these games.

“And when you look at the players playing there, many of them have played in our games and that shows that if we continue with this type of arrangement definitely we shall not only improve in football but also in all the 19 sports that we are competing for in this year,” he added.

Mugisha called for increased participation of students in sporting activities from participating countries to nurture more talent.

“The participation has increased and for us in schools we believe in what we call mass sports because the more the students are introduced in the sports, the more competition they participate in, then the more likely that they are going to become very good and then the more likely that the national teams will definitely pick them,” he explained.

The games chair added that the federation encourages every school to ensure that every learner gets access to sports competition to enable them explore different talents apart from academics.

“And we also believe that it is the right of every student in our schools in the East African region to get access to competitions, especially sports competitions. We do all it takes to make sure that we bring as many students as possible to this championship. Our friends in South Sudan were not been able to be with us but we shall do all it takes in future to make sure they come and they will be part of us,” Mugisha added.

He said Kenya has dominated the East Africa school games in the past, winning most of the sports disciplines.

“The last four competitions have all been won by Uganda, so this year I can see very big competition between not only Uganda and Kenya but Tanzania is also coming up strongly,” he added.

He said Kenya has always won the overall championships when they host the FEASSA games.

“It is very important to note that Kenya has never lost when they have hosted the games. Kenya has hosted these games five times and they have won in all the five times. Uganda has won the last four competitions since 2019 but then, they have never, never won when Kenya host the competitions,” he explained

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Moses Wekesa