Release funds to women’s boxing team, Kameta urges government

Boxing Association of Kenya Chairman John Kameta. Photo/Jonah Onyango

The Boxing Association of Kenya (BAK) has called on the Government to release funds meant for the National Women Boxing Team to Jeju, South Korea for the World Women Boxing Championships on November 12-25.

BAK President John Kameta (pictured) said: “We have done our best to prepare the female boxers and our efforts to reach concerned government officials have hit a dead end.” 

He said despite several communications the federation had sent to the
Ministry of Sports officials, no response has been received.

“It takes time and finances to prepare a team for such a crucial tournament and it pains when the concerned authorities fail to respond to our correspondences,”  Kameta told reporters at Madison Square Garden in Nakuru during the finals of the National Boxing League over the weekend.

Efforts to get comments from Sports Cabinet Secretary Dr Hassan Wario and Sports Commissioner Gordon Oluoch were fruitless as their phones went unanswered.

Kameta said the World Women Boxing Championships is a forum where Kenyan female boxers will exhibit their skills and possibly get promoted to the Amateur Professional Boxing (APB) Programme like their male counterparts.

APB Programme recently introduced by the International Amateur Boxing Association (Aiba)is a strategy by the world boxing body to introduce professionalism in the sport as a way of rewarding boxers at a tender age and to avert exploitation of players by private boxing promoters.

BAK needs to send six female players to South Korea. They are Christine Ongare (fly), Mary Muthoni (light), Nelly Oluoch (middle), Ruth Odongo (bantam), Elizabeth Akinyi (light heavy) and Media Muhatia (heavyweight).