Kuki’s Laikipia Games win top award at peace sports forum

• Environmentalist Kuki Gallman feted for the games between warring Samburu and Pokots

An eminent environmentalist, artist and philanthropist, Kenya’s Kuki Gallmann never imagined she would burst onto the sporting scene at global level and earn instant recognition with as much gusto as that which saw her become a leading figure in the arts and conservation of nature.

However, on Thursday night at the imposing Café de Paris in the heart of Monte Carlo, a panel of judges – eminent personalities in sports, politics and society – were unanimous that Gallman’s Laikipia Highland Games deserved the prestigious Sports Event of the Year award at the annual Peace and Sport Forum organized under the patronage of Prince Albert II, the ruler of Monaco.

The Laikipia Highland Games, whose 2009 version was organised on September 19, beat off a strong challenge from other sports events that included the African Championship of Nations (CHAN), a tournament for Africa-based players organised for the first time this year by the African Football Confederation (CAF) in Cote d’ Ivoire and the Fifa/International Military Sports council’s Futsal (indoor football) tournament.

Marathon for peace

Also nominated was the Marathon for Peace organised by the Congo Olympic Committee and the United Nations.

Thursday’s awards ceremony was grand, with the over 400 guests at the gala dinner and workshops that preceded it checked into the prestigious 950 Euros-a-night (approximately Sh100,000-a-night, bed and breakfast only) Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel and Resort, all the bills settled by Prince Albert and Joel Bouzou, founder of the Peace and Sport organization.

Not a huge sum considering that the freshest Mercedes SLR luxury sports car at the German manufacturer’s Monaco showroom down the road on the Avenue Princesse Grace has a price tag of 970,000 Euros, well over Sh100 million!

Well, with a 300ml bottle of low-alcohol beer costing as much as 70 Euros (Sh7,000 or thereabouts) and a bottle of wine available for an obscene 3,000 Euros (Sh300,000) a bottle, at some clubs and exclusive restaurants here, Monaco is truly a rich man’s playground.

And as the 400 guests worked through the richly assembled five-course menu at the awards ceremony, Gallmann, the Italian immigrant well-endowed financially in her own right, must have been left wondering what difference the cash spent by the Monegasque people on luxury could make in Laikipia.

“I wanted to put the young men, woman and children from the different communities who are always fighting, on a neutral ground where they can look each other in the eye,” Gallmann said of the Pokots, Turkanas, Njemps and Samburus after receiving the award.

Sadly, Gallmann’s husband died in a car crash while returning home with presents for their unborn son, Emanuele, who was himself bizarrely killed by a snake bite at the age of 17.

“I realized that 2008 that it was going to be the 25th anniversary of my son’s death and on April 12, 2008, I started the Emanuele Laikipia Highland Games and called his friends, the people who worked for me and even those who dug his grave to come and be part of these games.

“This award is for the people of Laikipia and the people of Kenya,” she added.

The jury that made the decisions on the awards included Kenya’s sports minister Hellen Sambili, Denmark’s Kenya-born world 800 metres champion Wilson Kipketer, Peace and Sport founder Joel Bouzou, special advisor to the UN, Wilfried Lemke, International Olympic Committee member and Olympic ski champion Pernilla Wiberg and Russian arctic explorer Matvey Shparo.

The awards, launched last year, reward individuals and sports initiatives which have contributed to peace and social stability with the winners having proven how sport can help build bridges between divided or opposed communities.