Martial Arts: Mombasa event hang in balance

Tong lL Moo Do participants at Nyali Beach, Mombasa.[Omondi Onyango, Standard]

More confusion continued to hit the annual Mombasa Open International Tong Il Moo Do tournament after the Ministry of Sports failed to disburse funds to the Kenya Tong Il Moo Do Federation.

Hosts Jasiri and 11 foreign teams are in Mombasa for the event that was supposed to start on Friday at Aga Khan Academy.

The foreign teams include China, India, Japan, USA, Korea, Philippines, Zambia, Brazil, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Korea and Cote D’ivoire.

“The government has been funding the tournament and we submitted our budget in good time. We feel betrayed as a country despite using the tournament to boost the country’s tourism sector,” said the federation’s president Clarence Mwakio.

Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Director, Cultural Diplomacy Ann Wanjohi had assured the team on Friday that the event will go on as planned. [Ernest Ndunda]