SU to lead Kenyan universities in Celtel Africa Challenge competition

Cliff Mogere, Hussein Lightwalla, Nyambura Mutanyi, and Nelson Gakio

Strathmore University will for the second time this year lead a contingent of Kenyan teams to a regional tournament after it emerged the country's champion in the Celtel Africa Challenge in-country tournament held on Thursday, 1st November 2007.

SU team made of Nyambura Mutanyi (ACCA, II), Nelson Gakio (ACCA, IV), Hussein Lightwalla (BBIT III), and Cliff Mogere (BCom III) emerged tops after beating Egerton University in the final game. SU is the only team that didn't lose a game in the competition held at the University of Nairobi.

The team started its fairy tale campaign by beating last year's semi-finalists USIU. The tournament was played on a double knock out format which meant in subsequent rounds winners met winners.

SU's second game was a cracker against University of Nairobi (UoN). The game tied in the first and second rounds. SU led in the third round which meant UoN picked the rapid fire questions also called the Ultimate Challenge first.

After Ultimate Challenge, the teams were tied and the game went to sudden death. UoN were first to go for the sudden death question but didn't get the answer. SU got it and took the game.

SU's third game was against Moi University. It was a closely contested affair but SU again prevailed and qualified to represent the country in the regional tournament to be held between 18th and 24th January 2008 here in Nairobi.
The fourth and final game pitted SU against last season's champions Egerton – which is the only other team that had lost a game in the tournament. SU won the game to emerge the country's champions.

16 universities participated in the tournament. Speaking at the closing ceremony, Celtel Kenya's CEO, Mr David Murray hailed SU as the new kids on the block. SU is the only team in the Kenya contingent that didn't participate in last season's competition. Other teams in the contingent are Egerton, Moi and Kenyatta universities.

There will be 16 universities in the regional competition. Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania will each send four teams and Malawi and Zambia will send two each. The university that wins the regional tournament will get a cash prize of U$50,000. Individuals in the wining team will also get cash prizes.

SU Vice Chancellor Prof John Odhiambo says the game is a good motivation for students to develop interest in knowledge areas outside their specializations and thus be truly learned.

Results of the Celtel Africa Challenge Qualifying Tournament can be found here: http://www.celtelafricachallenge.com/tmts/results.asp