Newly elected Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjla is optimistic that the visit by International Chess Federation (FIDE) president Arkady Dvorkovich will help in promoting the fast growing sport in the country.
Wanjala disclosed that Dvorkovich, will be visiting the country accompanied by FIDE managing director Dana Reizniece-Ozola will be a wakeup call for chess players, especially in Mukuru Kwa Njenga and Kakuma refugee camp as a way of promoting the sport.
“The visit by the president will give Kenyan players an opportunity to shine at the international level. And am happy to inform the country formally that Chess Kenya will be hosting the FIDE led by Dvorkovich.
Dvorkovich and his delegation will be landing in the country on Tuesday night and he is expected to first visit the Kakuma refugee camp to inspect the Chess in Refugees project that has been ongoing for the last one year.
“FIDE started the sport in refugee camps and the project has been supervised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and FIDE Social Commission. As a federation, we have been monitoring this sport in such places and his visit to the refugee camps will motivate many young people and the refugees to enjoy life in the game,” added Wanjala.
After Kakuma visit on Wednesday, he will be meeting both the cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohammed as well as the commissioner of prisons John Kibasio Warioba on Thursday.
“The reason why we are meeting the Director General is because we have introduced Chess in prisons. The calendar will be busy starting with Meeting with the Director general of prison and later on with the Cabinet Secretary of sports. We will end the day by visiting Mukuru Kwa Njenga to see the impact of chess on children living in harsh conditions in slums,” explained Wanjala.
He added that he hopes that the visit will unlock more opportunities for chess in Kenya and build more confidence in the many stakeholders we are pursuing.
The visit by the president will be one of the big delegation after Wanjala was re-elected in office last week in his second and last term of four more years.