The government through the ministry of sports is set to construction a chess centre of excellence at the Kasarani stadium.
Sports Cabinet Secretary promised Kenyans while meeting the International Chess Federation (FIDE) president Arkady Dvorkovic and Chess Kenya officials.
Dvorkovic who has been in the country since Tuesday night was accompanied by Konstantin Kiselev (Assistant to the Fide President), Dana Reizniece-Ozila (Fide Managing Director) and Geir Nesheim (Fide Social Commission), Glenn Jusnes – the Senior External Relations Officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“The expectation is that we provide the resources and then create a special vehicle to get resources coming from elsewhere as well, to make sure it is an international standard facility. Having most young Kenyans play chess is one of the best things that could happen because it is a wonderful sporting activity
Dvorkovic, who is making his second ever visit to Kenya said “with the support of the government, we can create special spaces and centres of excellence where young players can improve their skills, thus being able to compete competitively internationally.”
Dvorkovic also visited Kakuma Refugee Camp in Turkana to inspect the progress of chess at the camp. The project has been going on for one year now under the supervision of UNHCR and Fide Social Commission as well as Prison’s boss Brigadier (retired) John Kibaso at Magereza House in Nairobi where alongside Chess Kenya president Bernard Wanjala they shared with him their idea to introduce the game at correctional facilities in the country.
Responding to Wanjala’s request that she intervenes on Chess Kenya’s plans to introduce chess in prisons, Amina said: “We will get it done because as a ministry, we want to continue providing support to prisons. We want to support them (prisoners) to focus on something other than being in prison.”