Lack of funds forces Vihiga County to skip Kenya Open Boxing Champs

Oguda says the Vihiga team has been training in hopes that well-wishers would come in to help facilitate their travel in vain.

“The amount of support we receive from the Vihiga County government has been very minimal. Ksh 100,000 we received from the Vihiga County Sports Fund kitty cannot facilitate the team’s travel and the players’ accommodation for five days,” said Oguda.

Oguda has accused the County Government of Vihiga for cutting down the budget for the Sports Fund.

“The kitty was launched on Ksh. 30M after the sports act was passed in 2019. But the amount has been reduced drastically to Ksh 5M the last two years where the boxing club received Ksh. 100000 only. This amount cannot facilitate the team’s travel for one competition even if it was to be in Kisumu yet we travel countrywide.”

He stated that the sports kitty's usefulness had been watered down despite Vihiga being the only county that had passed a law to finance sporting activities.

Also, failure for the Vihiga team to travel to Nairobi has not only wasted their time investment in preparations but will deny Vihiga boxers an opportunity to get exposure that would land some players in the national team.

“We have lost a lifetime opportunity. You can reach Kenya open and find that the national team selection is happening at this stage,” the Vihiga boxing team manager lamented, urging Vihiga County leadership to invest adequate funds in the sports kitty so that teams honour their fixtures as expected.