Land grabbers hamper rebirth

Kenya’s second oldest golf club is seeking a rebirth and has vowed to fight to the last member to regain its rightful place among the elite cadre.

Kisii Sports Club was established way back in 1906 by the then white colonial provincial administrators as a social place from which they entertained their visitors.

The club, whose facilities include a challenging nine-hole golf course which is currently dilapidated, has been fighting off land grabbers since 1979. It also lacks proper and modern facilities. “We have had this problem of land grabbers wanting to annex the golf course land since 1979,” said David Kombo, one of the trustees of the club.

Kombo said the club was forced to relocate the tee of the first hole when the Lutheran Church chopped about an acre of the golf course early this year claiming it was allocated the land more than 50 years ago. The club went to court and the case is pending, he added. Kombo, who is the club’s first African treasurer, however says the rest of the land is now secure after they were issued with a 99-year lease.

He says one of the reasons the club has had to go through these problems is that it lacks adequate resources to improve its facilities. “Many people see the course as a wasted piece of land which they believe should be given to people ‘who need it most’,” said the former assistant minister.

He said the course is currently underutilised because of its poor condition owing to lack of lawnmowers to cut grass on the fairways. “We got lawn mowers from Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland thanks to our members David Nyakang’o and David Mogere,” Kombo said.

“We managed to rehabilitate other facilities – such as the swimming pool and club house – through harambee effort spearheaded by some of our friends, who included Kisii Bottlers. “We need to level the uneven fairways so that when we get a mower we may be able to improve them.”

Membership recruitment drive

The club has seven rooms for accommodation as well as snooker and other indoor games. According to the other club trustee, Dr Peter Mboga, the club’s small membership has been the biggest handicap for its development. “With only 200 members, from whom only about 20 are active golfers, it is almost impossible to maintain this kind of a club from the little contributions the members make,” said Dr Mboga.

“It is from this reason that the club recently embarked on a membership recruitment drive in order to try and improve the facilities.” Mboga added that the club decided to reduce the joining fee from Sh20,000 to only Sh10,000 “so that we may attract many more people, not just from within the Kisii community but elsewhere in the country.”

His sentiments were supported by former club chairman Tim Omato, who is among the oldest members. Omato said the management has a responsibility of educating the community to understand that the club is there for their benefit and not only for the few members. “With the new Constitution having been put into place, every county in the country will be embarking on improving their social activities in order to improve their economic development,” said Omato, an accountant.

“As Kisii County, we do not want to be left behind. “This golf course is an important avenue for the promotion of tourism in this county but there is no foreign or domestic tourist who will come and play golf here if the condition of the course remain the way it is.”

Attract tourists, tournaments

Omato appealed for help, saying the management wants to improve facilities at the club so as to attract tourists as well as tournaments, which will generate revenue for the club.” Only Royal Nairobi Golf Club is older than Kisii Sports Club, which is located right in the middle of Kisii Town.