KICOSCA/CASA 2016 Concludes With Nairobi Crowned Winners.

Uasin Gishu County Team break into song and dance as they are announced the overall Athletics Champions

On an outstanding weekend, Nairobi County were crowned overall champions in the 4^th edition of the Kenya Inter-Counties Sports and Culture Association (KICOSCA) and County Assembly Sports Association (CASA) games that were held in Thika Town. The tournament, which is held every year with all the county governments around the country taking part, saw the largest number of participating teams in history taking part.

The Kidero Army ran away with both disciplines as Nairobi MCAs ruled the ballgames, with their counterparts in KICOSCA winning all the indoor tournaments. Their ladies terrorised the rest of the country in KICOSCA’s netball, basketball and tag-of-war.

Kisumu and Kiambu Counties were 1^st and 2^nd Runners-up respectively in KICOSCA as Uasin Gishu, Meru, Laikipia and Narok all tied in second place in the CASA tournaments.

Uasin took the KICOSCA Athletics Trophy with The Senate narrowly grabbing the CASA Athletics trophy, pipping Kilifi and Kericho MCAs.

Kisii County are this year’s KICOSCA’s football champions after they beat Kiambu in post-match penalties at the Thika Technical Training Institute Grounds. Kiambu MCAs were second time unlucky in the CASA Finals when they were robbed off the winners’ trophy by Nairobi, again through post-match penalties, after a 1-1 deadlock in full time.

Host Kiambu only won in KICOSCA’s volleyball (men), basketball (men) and Pool Table (men). The closest Kiambu ladies came to winning a trophy was in KICOSCA’s Tug-Of-War where they were 3^rd.

Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi,  joins his boys in celebrating being crowned KICOSCA Football 2016 Champions.

This year also saw a new kind of discipline introduced to the tournament when MCAs (CASA) competed in catwalk.

Hon. Hosea Lamai (Uasin Gishu) won in the Best Sportswear category, with the Best Smart Casual going to Hon. Brenda Bill from Kericho. Other winners included Hon. Grace Muni (Kajiado) in the Best Cultural Category and Hon. Alice Wahito (Laikipia) as the Most Spirited Model.

Uasin Gishu County was ranked the Most Outstanding County in this discipline.

Speaking during the closing ceremony that was held at the Thika Stadium, KICOSCA Chairman Mr. Samson Changwony expressed his gratitude to the hosts Kiambu County for the excellent preparations and organisation of the tournament, terming it the best they have ever experienced in their history. He also thanked the people of Kiambu County and Thika in particular for the kind of hospitality that they accorded the more than 20,000 visitors who camped in the town for more than ten days.

He said that the security team lead by Kiambu County Commissioner Alex Ole Nkoyo, Thika West DCC tom Anjere, Thika OCPD Erastus Muthamia and DAPC Samuel Ombonya dis a splendid job as they worked overnight to ensure the security of the participants and residents throughout the entire period.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the security team led by the county commissioner Kiambu for there were no incidents of insecurity that were reported to our desk. This was a great achievement and in fact we were ‘Home away from home’ in Kiambu County,” said Changwony.

Secretary General Mr. Muraya Kabiri announced the change of venue for the East Africa Local Authorities Sports and Cultural Association (EALASKA) that are scheduled for December 2016 from Machakos County to either Kisumu or a county in Western Kenya. This was a result of a request by EALASKA members Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi who preferred a venue that was not so far for their teams.

(See Also: KICOSCA Launched With Song, Dance And Colour, Booming Business In Thika.)

He pointed out that no county had so far made a bid to host next year’s tourney therefore requested the governors to bid for the same.

“Our only challenge now is that next year we don’t have anyone to host the games as we have not yet received any bid from the governors. We appeal to them to come forward so as to assist us in the scheduling of the events. Otherwise, we have postponed the EALASKA trials in Machakos and we will soon communicate the venue and the dates for the same,” said Kabiri.

This year’s KICOSCA Games were attended by teams from 32 counties, plus a team from The Senate.  

The Theme for the year was “Peace and Co-existence through Culture & Sports.