Why Taekwondo is still a ‘fringe’ sport in Kenya

In July 2012, Charles Field-Marsham, a Canadian businessman based in Rift Valley, opened an ultra-modern Taekwondo training facility christened Champion Taekwondo, in Kerio Valley.

The Sh16.8 million investment was for Fields, himself a former Black Belt martial arts exponent and the owner of a fluorspar mine, a way of giving back to the community and also offer youth the opportunity to excel in martial arts.

Training at the dojo would be conducted under the tutelage of eight-time Canadian Taekwondo champion Victor Luke, owner of Champion Taekwondo Academy in Canada. The launch didn’t garner much publicity and mirrored, in a way, the trajectory and character of Taekwondo in Kenya: quiet, resilient but oft-forgotten.

By establishing the academy in the athletic hotbed of Kenya, the launch also seemed to figuratively suggest the revamping of an art that had largely played second fiddle not only to athletics but the other Olympic games.

HOPE AND DESPERATION

Equally important, the event highlighted a year when the past and future of the sport seemed to come to play, revealing both the hope and desperation of the sport. Indeed, in a month’s time, the Olympic Games would be held in London, and Kenya would miss out.

The Kenya Taekwondo team had made its Olympic debut at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The country was represented by Dickson Wamwiri and Milkah Akinyi.

Though the pair didn’t win any medals, it was a remarkable feat at the world stage for the athletes, having stamped their authority at the Olympic qualifiers in Tripoli, Libya the previous year. But four years later, the script would be different; internecine wrangles within the rank and file of the sport had effectively scuttled any hopes for representation in London.

According to purists, the leadership of the sport had been untenable, its integrity adulterated. This led to the brief suspension of the Kenya Taekwondo Association Chairman Major Suleiman Sumba and Secretary General George Wesonga.

The Association reached back into history and tagged the man who had been in the forefront since the nascent days of the sport in Kenya: Grand Master Mogg Yoon.

While Yoon is generally credited with popularising of Taekwondo in Kenya, it was Master Lee Ki-Jin, an exponent of the Jee Duk Kwan style who introduced the art to Kenya in 1975. Lee worked as a bodyguard for Chon Nagwon, a Korean businessman who owned the Safari Park Hotel and Casino.

Lee trained members of the emerging upper-class in the city as well as expatriates based in Kenya and also the Presidential Guard. Lee organised to have Yoon brought to the country in 1978 to help expand Taekwondo in Kenya.

Yoon was instrumental in forming the Kenya Taekwondo Association in 1979 together with Samson Lipuka, a radio personality and one of the first Taekwondo students in the country.

“The 80’s were rich years; we saw the introduction and growth of the sport countrywide,” reminisces Lipuka, who is still active in Taekwondo. Lipuka helped open clubs in many schools and institutions in Kenya and used his radio platform to create awareness of the new sport. He also founded the Undugu Taekwondo club in Eastleigh. “We still have a long way to go in terms of entrenching the sport nationally,” he says.

Despite Taekwondo’s seemingly low profile, there are indeed over 300 registered clubs nationally.

At the Creative Gym based on the sixth floor of the GPO building in Nairobi, Taekwondo enthusiasts are sweating it out. Over synchronised shouts, coach Benson Voiya issues instructions. The intensity is palpable.

In addition to coaching, Voiya also serves as the Chairman of Nairobi Chapter of the Kenya Taekwondo Association where he has served the last four years.

“I think politics has a lot to do with how the sport has been managed in Kenya,” muses Voiya. “Squabbles for management positions have certainly hurt the sport in many ways, and ultimately its growth.”

Voiya also says that financial woes have contributed to lackluster development despite the potential for growth. “We are supported by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock), but at times we have to dig into our pockets to bail out our athletes.”

This was never more apparent than during preparations for the All African Games for Juniors slated for May in Botswana when the Association resorted to requesting through its Facebook page, for well-wishers to donate food and other supplies for the team during camp.

Kenya Taekwondo team’s foray into international competition was in 1981, when the country sent two members of the Armed Forces to the World Military Games in Korea.

Featherweight Edward Okoth and Stephen Okalo (middleweight) brought home two silver medals.

GREATEST STAGE

The crowning moment was in 1987 when John Kariuki won the first ever martial arts gold medal for Kenya at the 4th All Africa Games at the Moi International Sports Kasarani.

The country is yet to strike gold at the greatest stage of all: the Olympics, but according to Voiya, the wait may not be too long. “Preparations for the 2016 Olympics qualifiers are in top gear,” he says.

And although the sport is yet to bawl everyone over, it certainly has a fascinating history which has much to do with Kenya’s most successful national coach, the late George Muriu.

Muriu’s entry into Taekwondo was most bizarre: a story is told of how he attempted to snatch a neck chain from Kenya Army officer Ben Mathenge on the streets of Nairobi.

Muriu, a street peddler who had never lost a street fight found himself pummeled mercilessly by Mathenge, who then graciously offered him the chance to train in Taekwondo.

Muriu, who died in 2012, went on to be the most decorated Taekwondo exponent and coach in the country. He is credited with nurturing Taekwondo talent in Kenya. “Muriu was more like a father than a coach to me,” said Dickson Wamwiri the 2008 Olympian in a 2013 interview.