Despite a brief threat from a swarm of bees invading the course range, hosts Kenya Men’s team put a spirited fight to grab this year’s East African Community (EAC) Inter-Parliamentary golf title after the final rounds played at the par 71 Nyali golf and country club course in Mombasa county on Monday.
The bees from the nearby forest of trees is said to have been attracted by perfumes from some of the parliamentary golfers practicing at the range before teeing off.
The parliamentary golfers including Kenya’s Esther Passaris and the club’s golf caddies were forced to run away for their lives leaving behind their golf bags.
But fortunately none of them were injured except a club’s junior golfer Aly Is Haq who was doing his usual training and a caddy but both were rushed to a nearby hospital and reported to be out of danger and were back to the club doing their usual jobs.
Those fellow parliamentarians waiting to tee off from the first tee were briefly stopped by the starter Kalamu Choyo and helplessly watched the incident some 70 meters away.
The club took quick response after being alerted by Choyo and the club’s emergency response team swung into quick action and sprayed the surrounding trees with insecticides which immediately calmed down the situation and everything resumed to normalcy.
The Kenya team parliamentary men golfers made of their Captain Murwithania Mugambi, Mwangi Kiunjuri, John Methu, Allan Chesan, Kassim Sawa, Fred Ikana, Caleb Mule, Edwin Mugo, Kiragu Chege, Munyoro Kamau and Joseph Githuku registered a combined excellent total of 374 points to emerge the overall Men team winners.
Their combined victory came after scoring 131 points on the first round last Sunday, adding 143 points in the second rounds last Thursday and finalizing with 100 points on the final day on Monday.
Captain Mugambi thanked the team spirit displayed by colleagues promising that they will put more efforts on training, increasing the numbers of golfers and even try to search and recruit a golf professional to assist in improving their skills in the sport of golf.
“We are happy, it has been a wonderful experience playing with our colleagues from other countries and We are thrilled to be the team winners playing here around the beautiful course in Coast experiencing an excellent warm weather. We also hope to train more players to improve our game. I thank the club for facilitating the success of the event, my team for good work and ‘Mchezo’ in providing various playing kits to the players and also assisted the host country Kenya in preparing some of the venues for the games, “said Mugambi.
Defending champion Uganda men team were the runners up registering a total of 348 points and Tanzania came third with a combined total of 148 points.
On the Ladies team side, Uganda emerged top leaders on a combined total of 371 points while their Tanzanian colleagues collected a combined total of 153 points to take the runners up slot.
For the individual Performances, Uganda’s parliamentary lady golfer Sylvia Nayebale was the overall leader recording a total of 117 points, while Kenya’s Caleb Mule on a combined score of 100 points and his country colleague Mary Maingi with a combined total of 99 points were the runners up and third placed respectively.
The golf tournament was among the games played over the past two weeks around various venues in Mombasa featuring other sports namely tug of war, football, golf, athletics, netball, volleyball, basketball and darts and the prize giving ceremony for all the games was expected last Tuesday evening at Pride Inn hotels in Mombasa.
The games aimed at supporting regional integration through sports, involved parliamentarians from hosts Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and South Sudan.
Last year, Uganda maintained its crown from 2022 by emerging as the overall winner of the 13th Edition of the games.
TEAM LEADERS-MEN
1-Kenya Men-131-143-100-374 points.
2-Uganda Men-118-120-110-348 points.
3-Tanzania Men-45-66-37-148 points.
TEAM LEADERS-LADIES
1-Uganda Ladies-119-133-119-371 points.
2-Tanzania Ladies-46-48-59-153 points.
TOP TEN INDIVIDUALS AND TIES
1-Sylvia Nayebale-Uganda-39-40-38-117 points.
2-Caleb Mule-Kenya-31-40-29-100 points.
3-Mary Maingi-Kenya-35-33-31-99 points.
4-Xavier Kyooma-Uganda-33-32-31-96 points.
5-Judith Alyek-Uganda-27-34-32-93 points.
6-Anthony Okullo-Uganda-29-31-31-91 points.
7-Murwithania Mugambi-Kenya-29-38-23-90 points.
8-Sylvia Bahreira-Uganda-29-36-24-89 points.
T9-Kiragu John Kiragu-Kenya-32-30-22-84 points.
T9-Dickson Kateshumba-Uganda-33-25-26-84 points.
10-Kassim Sawa-Kenya-27-34-22-83 points.
INDIVIDUAL TOP THREE LEADERS-MEN
1-Caleb Mule-Kenya (27.5)-31-40-29-100 Points.
2-Xavier Kyooma-Uganda (25.3)-33-32-31-96 points.
3-Anthony Okullo-Uganda (16.3)-29-31-31-91 points.
INDIVIDUAL TOP THREE LEADERS-LADIES
1-Sylvia Nayebale-Uganda (35.8)-39-40-38-117 points.
2-Mary Maingi-Kenya (16.9)-35-33-31-99 points.
3-Judith Alyek-Uganda (36.0)-27-34-32-93 points.
