Queen’s Baton lands in Kenya

President Kibaki has said the government will set aside adequate resources for Kenyan teams to train and participate in the Commonwealth Games. “I urge our sportsmen and women, coaches and other officials to start training early for us to send a strong medals winning team,” Kibaki said in Mombasa on Saturday.

He received the Queen’s Commonwealth Baton from the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) chairman, Kipchoge Keino, who was accompanied by marathoner Catherine Ndereba and 10,000m runner, Lucy Kabuu. The Queen’s Baton Relay is to cover 71 countries in 340 days. It was first at the Buckingham Palace on October 29.

Kenya is the first East African country to receive the baton which will move to Tanzania. Kenya first participated in the Commonwealth Games in 1954 in Vancouver, Canada to finish fourth. Sports minister Hellen Sambili said Kenya will be represented by more than 200 sportsmen in the 19th Edition of the Games to be held in New Delhi, India next year.

Speaking during a brief handing over the Queen’s Relay Baton to President Mwai Kibaki at Treasury Square in Mombasa, the Minister said the government would continue to give incentives to sports stars to perform better. “We are ready for the Commonwealth Games in India and I am sure we will do better than we have in the past,” she said.

On Thursday, the minister underscored the importance of the arrival of the high- profile sporting symbol in the country. She said: “We are delighted to have imminent participation among us here as a nation with our time colours of Kenyan culture with pride and dignity in this joyous occasion in the annals of sports in the country.”

Visit 70 countries

The baton, according to Abdoulie Touray, the Vice-President for Africa at the Commonwealth Games Federation, once said it’s as sensitive as it has a sophisticated technological device that takes sounds and images and spreads it worldwide. Touray, who was re-elected unopposed for the same position in 2008 after serving the Commonwealth for two years underscored the significance of Queen’s Baton’s visit to 70 countries.

“The whole idea pertaining to Queen’s baton visit is to spread awareness and to see what the Commonwealth stands for, in order to promote unity and diversity. This event is also a sense of belonging,” Touray pointed out.

The first Queen’s Baton was created for a relay to celebrate the Cardiff 1958 Commonwealth Games in Wales. Since then the Baton Relay has become a much loved Games tradition. Its journey symbolises the unity and shared ideals of the Commonwealth of Nations.