By PSCU
The government has doubled its sponsorship of the premier golf tournament - the Kenya Open - to Sh274 million, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced on Sunday.
And the government will continue to use sports as one the ways of uniting Kenyans and creating opportunities for the youth, the president said at the end of this year's Kenya Open Golf Tournament.
The president said because of its potential to attract more trade, investment and tourists, the government would allocate substantial resources to facilitate growth sports across all disciplines and enable the Kenyan youth hone their talents in various sporting fields.
The Kenya Open Golf Championship is marking 50th anniversary. The President said the fresh funding would enable the Kenya Golf Open to join the main “ European Tour” next year.
“Proceed with your plans to have Kenya Open join the main European Tour in 2019,” President Kenyatta told Kenya Open organisers.
He challenged the organisers to be more creative and innovative so as to attract the best players even as they uphold highest degree of integrity.
This year’s tournament was won by the Italian, Lorenzo Gagli, who took home a first prize of 80,000 euros (Sh10 million ) after a double playoff against Jens Fahrbring of Sweden who became second and won the prize of 55,000 euros (Sh6.8 million).
President Kenyatta, who was joined by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the event, assured Kenyans of their commitment to uniting the nation so as to take it to the next level of development.
“We have agreed with my brother here that we are going to unite Kenyans. And sports is one way of doing so, “ said the President.
The former prime minister, who was invited to the event by the president, said they have agreed to unite Kenyans so as to allow the country to progress.
“I have felt very thrilled by what I saw here I have seen talent played here. We need to promote golf in our schools so we can scout talent at very young age so that talent can be developed,” Raila said.