Mbale comes alive as regional schools action begins
Musingu High School football team players with their coach Brenden Mwinamo (left) at Sudi Stadium, in Bungoma on July 20 during the Western Region Term Two Games.
Kenya will aim to reclaim the title as the 21st edition of the Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association (Feasssa) Games get underway today at the Mbale Stadium.
Kenya has not won the overall title since 2018 in Musanze, Rwanda. Uganda won in 2019 while the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to Covid 19.
Uganda reigned supreme when the championships resumed in 2022 and defended their title last year in Huye, Rwanda.
The annual secondary schools bonanza, which will run till August 26, will feature over 4,500 students drawn from schools in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Teams will battle it out in football, volleyball, rugby sevens and 15s, netball, basketball (5x5,3x3), racquet games, hockey, swimming, and athletics.
Girls’ rugby sevens will make a debut after being integrated into the various national championships
Team Kenya, which arrived here on Friday afternoon, after leaving their camp at Musingu Boys High School in Kakamega County on Friday morning, are confident of wresting the title from their hosts.
The contingent crossed the border at Lwakhkaha and then travelled some 59km to Mbale.
“The journey has been smooth and our preparations went well. We are confident that we shall reclaim our title and break the Ugandan hearts,’’ said Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association secretary-general David Ngugi.
Kenya have won 16 of the past 20 editions and will be eager to reassert their dominance in the regional championship.
Today’s opening ceremony will be held at the Mbale Stadium with sources indicating that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will attend.
Football will get the action going today with a single match pitting Uganda’s Bukedea Comprehensive School against Benjamin Mkapa Secondary School of Tanzania in a boys’ Pool ‘A’ match from 3pm.
The rest of the action will start tomorrow across different venues in the southeastern city.
Last year, Kenya had a modest medal tally of 23 medals -- eight gold, seven silver, and seven bronze.
Ugandan schools dominated with 37 medals --17 gold,11 silver, and nine bronze.
Hosts Rwanda were third after finishing with 12 medals -- four silver and eight bronze.
Tanzania were fourth with three medals -- two silver and a bronze.
Kenya won gold in volleyball (boys and girls), rugby sevens, hockey (girls), athletics (boys and girls), and lawn tennis (boys and girls), and will be aiming to retain these titles.
Kenya will also want to as reclaim boys’ hockey, football, handball, and rugby 15s, which have become a preserve of Ugandan schools.
The football titles have especially proven elusive for the Kenyan sides with boys’ gong a tough one to claim.
The last Kenyan boys’ team to win the title was Barding High School in 2016 in Eldoret.
The other Kenyan side to taste success was St Anthony’s Boys High School during its inaugural edition in 2002 in Kenya.
Holders St Mary’s Secondary School, Kitende of Uganda have lifted the title a record 14 times.
