AWARDS VOTING ENDS: As corporates pump millions into kitty

CEO Lotto Brian Waluchio (left) present a dummy cheque to Paul Tergat Founder of Sports Of the Year Award (SOYA) and Bismarck Mutahi of SOYA Pannel of judges towards the support of SOYA 2016 to be held at KICC in a week's time in Nairobi. Jan 12, 2016. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Voting for the 2016 Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year (Soya) Awards closed last night with many contestants optimistic they will take something home in the awards ceremony slated for next Thursday at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi.

Fans voted online for their favourite athletes and following conclusion of the voting process, the panelists said they will retreat to a secluded place to analyse the votes and prepare the final list of the winners this weekend.

“The competition has been very stiff ranging from the Kenya rugby Sevens team which won first IRB series Main Cup to Harambee Starlets who made their debut at AWCON last year but we want to assure that only the best will be unveiled come the the D-Day,” assured Bismarck Mutahi, one of the panelists who sat in for Soya chairman Watson Karuma at the yesterday’s press conference in Nairobi.

Soya founder Paul Tergat has predicted that the competition will be cutthroat owing to the calibre of contestants fighting it out in the 13th edition of the awards.

Tergat said that in order to make the event exciting and different from other editions, they have decided to increase the amount that will be taken home by the winners in other categories with exception of the Overall Sports Personality Award whose prize still remains at Sh 1million.

“We decided to increase the prize money for our various categories as a way of motivating our world conquering sportsmen and women towards greatness and also making the awards that have become a national annual fixture a truly memorable and rewarding event,” said Tergat.

Tergat said it would not have been possible to sail in the rough seas for 13 years without the help of corporate coming on board.

Among the sponsors who came on board are the Lotto Foundation that have pumped in Sh 3million into the awards that seeks to recognize and honor old and young, elite and amateur and able and disabled athletes.

While handing over the cheque, Lotto Foundation Chief Executive O fficer (CEO) Brian Waluchio noted that he was glad that his organization through the Lotto Foundation, and which invested in various sports in 2016 including the Rio Olympics and the Baringo Half Marathon, is participating in the Soya Awards as a way of celebrating yearlong efforts of Kenya’s esteemed sportsmen and women.

Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) Acting Director, Frequency Spectrum Management, Tom Olwero, while handing over their Sh1million cheque said their institution has sponsored Soya gala for the sixth year running because their mission identifies with the objectives behind the event.

National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) CEO Jeff Mwangi whose organization also gave out Sh1million to Soya noted: “There can never be better ambassadors for our country than our sportsmen and women who hoist our flag high in various international events.”