KFS set to let golfers tee off 60 years later

Golfers and enthusiasts of the game could soon have a golf course in the county more than 60 years after its only course was subdivided.  

The proposed Meru Golf Course is likely to be located in Kaithe near Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST) after the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) hinted at the possibility of giving land to Meru Golf Club. 

Lower Imenti

Sources told The Standard KFS board would later this month or early September sit to consider whether to grant the Meru Golf Club coordinating committee land in the lower Imenti Forest, on the East of the Meru-Maua highway.

Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi had last week said golfers might start teeing off in the area almost 60 years since the last golf course established in the colonial period was earmarked as prime plots shortly after independence.

Meru Ecosystem Conservator John Njoroge said the golf course committee had requested to lease 100 acres locally. Mr Njoroge said the application would factor in any help that would help KFS rid that section of the forest of the heavy infestation of invasive lantana weed.

Kiraitu had said the county government would support efforts to set up the nine-hole golf course in Kaithe.

According sources, the KFS had offered the coordinating committee another chance to establish the only golf course in Mt Kenya East after the initial efforts to set one in the upper Imenti forest between the Meru ASK show grounds and the Meru National Polytechnic was mired in controversies.

“We find the new offer appropriate as it has an abundant water supply and it is within the Meru town,” said Justus Mugaa, a member of the committee.

The coordinating committee had been stuck in negotiations with the ASK branch to lease part of its 100 acres at Gitoro curved out of Upper Imenti forest to set the course.

But ASK branch would not bulge and eventually the disagreement went to court.

At some point, the KFS awarded the golf course developers a temporary occupation permit after a protracted court dispute that Kiraitu has been trying to arbitrate.

Golf course

According to sources privy to the new development, KFS had sympathised with the constant frustration of the golf course project and decided to consider the request for the forest portion near the Meru University.

The section is outside the fenced wildlife park and has a stream running through it.