Veteran sports administrator Joseph Mugo honoured

 

Seasoned sports administrator, sports mentor and former footballer, Joseph Mugo, has been honoured by some of the players he nurtured at Kiriti High School in Nyeri County.

After nurturing players in various sporting disciplines in a career spanning 54 years, Kiritu High School’s class of 1989 has settled on Mr Mugo as the recipient of the inaugural award.

He was presented with the award early this week in Mweiga, Nyeri County.

Mr Mugo is known for nurturing sports talent in volleyball and athletics. As a teacher at Kiriti High School, he guided the school to the national finals in both boys’ and girls’ volleyball in the 1980s and 1990s.

Back then, Mr Mugo built formidable teams, and big names from all over Kenya could not match the skilled Kiriti Volleyball teams.

Opponents would struggled to locate Kiriti in the country’s map, but they knew that meeting the school’s volleyball teams in a match would spell the end of their ambitions.

One of his protégés in athletics is 1994 Commonwealth Games 400 metres champion Charles Gitonga.

The athlete, who won gold medal in the one-lap race in Victoria, Canada,  runs businesses in Nyeri and Nanyuki.

He reckons he would not be where he is today were it not for the disciplinarian that Mr Mugo was. 

"He was a stickler for discipline and had no time for laxity during practice sessions. You would arrive a minute late for training, and you would be in big trouble. After you were done with his punishment, he would push you out of the team," Gitonga said during the ceremony on Saturday.

Others in the 1989 class who attended the ceremony were Prof Patrick Kanyi Wamuyu, a renowned scholar who teaches at United States International University -  Africa (USIU-A) in Nairobi, Sammy Muthami, a former member of the school’s football team who works at Kenyatta University , and Charles Mwathi.

Others were Joseph Muhoro, Dr Paul Mubia, Moses Ndungu, Warutumo brothers Duncan and Stephen, and Mary Ngatia. Susan Ndung’u coordinated the event.

"Mr Mugo’s achievements speak for themselves. He deserves to be honoured by the state," Mwathi observed.