A total of 42 countries from Africa, North and South America, Middle East, Asia and Australia are expected to participate in the 11th edition of the Mombasa Open Tong-IL Moo-Doo championships.

The competitions are slated for December 9 to 20 at the Aga Khan Gymnasium with over 400 participants expected to compete in different categories.

Addressing the media at the Kenya Tong-IL Moo-Doo Federation headquarters in Mombasa, the federation chair Master Clarence Mwakio said they were ready for the competition despite facing financial challenges to host the tournament.

“Last year we faced a huge challenge because we received no support from the government, but despite the hurdle we managed to pull a successful event,” said Mwakio.

Mwakio said that they have a budget of Sh589 million to fulfill all its budgetary obligations.

The federation is seeking Sh272 million from the government to support the main event hosting budget and the national team Jasiri.

The World Tong-IL Moo-Doo federation he said had agreed to sponsor part of the budget with Sh106 million with participating countries covering Sh105 million

“We spoke with the ministry of sports last year informing them of our intention to host the event this year, we also sent reminders but are yet to get a response. But we remain hopeful that the ministry is going to respond,” Mwakio said.

He lauded the continued working relationship between the federation and the government as he called for fair treatment of all sports federation.

Mwakio who is also the president of the Africa Tong-IL Moo-Doo Federation said that if all sports were to be treated equally in the country, then the sports in Kenya will go far.

Kenya he said is a focal point for the growth and development of the sport across the continent and by hosting the Mombasa Open Tong-IL Moo-Doo Championships is putting Kenya on the world map.

“We wish all sports federations are treated equally because there are no big or small sports. In fact we need to support the said ‘small’ sports to get to the level of the so-called ‘big’ sports,” he said.

Despite team Kenya still owing the federation allowances from last year’s tournament, Mwakio said that they are in high spirit and expect to retain the overall title in the competition.

Mwakio said that it was sad to note that the county government of Mombasa has failed to support the past ten editions of the tournament missing out on the huge potential of leveraging on and promoting sports tourism.

A reply letter seen by Star dated November 8 informed the federation that they could not get any support from the county due to harsh economic times.

“This is a city named tournament that was approved by the world federation after I put in a request. The aim is to promote the sport and boost sports tourism,” said Mwakio.

Tong-IL Moo-Doo has been in Kenya for the last 35 years.

The sport has presence in 12 counties as the federation seeks to role the sport to all the 47 counties by the end of 2025.