Community Sport in Kenya

I have just returned from Kenya where I saw and heard how community led running, football and netball alongside other games and sports are: preventing localised conflict (especially centred on livestock theft); creating support for forestry and elephant conservation; educating on health and gender; providing alternatives to radicalisation; and strengthening community cohesion across generations. Whilst bringing health and happiness across the country.

Thank you to Hywel George and the team at Griot Ltd for facilitating my visit across Kilifi county in the south east and Turkana county in the north west. We went to see some of their water bores that bring clean water to over a million people and heard from community members, leaders, elders and officials about health and social issues affecting their communities – including how sport can be part of a wider offer to support healthy, connected communities within sustainable environments. No matter where we went, there was always some sort of football pitch or space used for sport with stories attached that showed how sport brings more than just pleasure and exercise to people.

At Participate World we can and do create community sport initiatives from scratch where there is demand from communities. But much of the time we aim to support existing initiatives achieve even more impact, scale where appropriate and link with similar or enabling organisations. I look forward to working through exactly how we can do that in Kilifi, Turkana and other areas of Kenya with communities and with partners across sectors.