Kenya host qualifiers for African scrabble tournament
By Barry.Silah, March 23, 2023
More students are now playing scrabble, a move attributed to its ability to hone grammar and mathematics skills.
Players is expected to know their words and also to be able to count their scores while strategically playing to outsmart their opponent.
The first African Youth Championship is scheduled to take place this year in Lagos, Nigeria.
The event is slated for August and Scrabble Kenya has been on a quest to prepare some of the sharpest young minds in Kenya through regional qualifiers. The qualifiers target players under the age of 19. The first qualifier matches took place in the Central, Coastal and Eastern regions. In the Central region, the event was held at Kagumo High School where more than 90 students competed. Kahuhia Girls took position one, while Moi Mbiruri and Kabare bagged positions two and three respectively.
In the Coastal region, more than 39 students convened at Mwangeka Girls High School where Murray Girls, St.Mary’s Boys and Mwangeka Girls took positions one, two and three respectively.
The Eastern region had 72 students playing at St.Angela’s, Kitui. The hosts, bagged position one while Kanyangi and Kyondoni landed positions two and three respectively.
Scrabble Kenya Chairman Limo Kipkemoi noted; “This game is all about getting youth involved in sports that enhance their learning and by the end of the year we shall have at least two schools in each county actively playing scrabble.
“The numbers have grown but the quality of the game has gone down. Right now most of the players are still learning the basics”.
And youth patron Bernard Amuke said: “ We will be going to the Africa youth event to get exposure. We intend to continue doing clinics after the nationals so that next year our quality will have improved.”