Seeds for inclusive golf in Kenya planted by Anita
During a golf session for youngsters at Kenya Railway Golf Club you can hear the shouts of joy as children with a disability play on a golf course for the first time, and then they help plant fruit trees beside the fairways.
Ann Wangui Irura, or Anita as friends call her, is smiling away as she leads the session. To Anita they are all her youngsters. She knows from experience that the game can offer these children their own voice – where otherwise they might not be heard at all.
“Watching the kids sharing something special as they play golf together, it makes everything worthwhile,” says Anita. “These children should have a voice and be able to join in.” This view is shared by those at Kenya Railway Golf Club, including the club’s captain, Edward Manywanda, who has been so supportive, and was present to watch the event.
Golf is a niche sport in Kenya (with around 40 golf courses and 8,000 or so registered golfers). Equipment and playing fees are too rich for many pockets.
Sometimes the barriers are knocked down by newcomers who arrive with innocence and discover a calling.
Anita had no golfing background. She is an administrative assistant at a school for children with special needs in Nairobi called Kenya Community Centre for Learning (KCCL). Eight years ago when trying different sports to engage with the students, she tried golf and realised the game could help them to focus on a task and see personal improvement. Something clicked.
“Our children would have only seen golf – if at all – in clips on YouTube. Football is the big sport here, and of course everyone knows we Kenyans are very good at running,” smiles Anita.
“But I believed golf could be well suited to our children. It is all about learning to concentrate on a task, encouraging patience and self-control. It is also about the possibilities in life, the next shot.”
Encouraged by friends, in January 2023 Anita registered the non-profit community venture ‘Golden Tee Inclusive Golf’ and as founder and currently sole permanent volunteer, Anita launched this project publicly in May 2024: the mission being to offer golf experiences to underprivileged children with disabilities (physical and intellectual), and potential student and workplace opportunities as the youngsters mature.
Her bond with her school and the 20 students she first inspired through golf remains strong, while the launching of Golden Tee has enabled Anita to encourage another 30 young people to embrace the game so far this season.
Anita runs a training programme for children with disabilities in the town of Kajiado, 50 miles south of Nairobi city. At AIC Kajiado Child Care Centre youngsters from nomadic communities are offered education and accommodation by the church; here Anita also provides personal care items, including sanitary towels for the girls. “I offer golf lessons using their school field as there isn’t any golf course in this area,” she explains. “If I can raise funds for more junior golf kits this can continue to grow.”
“The short woman with short hair and the big smile”
It is still early days but Anita is persistent. Raising finance to grow the endeavour is challenging, meeting many obstacles as she works on communication outside school hours. “They know me,” she says. Many people around Nairobi may not recall her name first time around she says but remember meeting “the short woman with short hair and the big smile” who always keeps knocking on doors, never giving up.
“Some of these youngsters who have intellectual disabilities, they may not be able to succeed academically, but given an opportunity in sports, they can excel. We want to help children of all disabilities, we want to include everyone.”
Anita will explain that Kenya, like many countries, has long-struggled with its treatment of the disabled. Though change is today accelerating there are still many who view disability in an entirely negative way, something to be literally hidden away. A child with a disability can, says Anita, “be discriminated against from day one”. In certain areas in Kenya, the subject of the value of the “girl child” is also a raw and contentious one.
“We have come from an age where disability was a curse, according to African traditions and myths. That’s just what we have been coming through as a country,” Anita says. “Then on top of that, we also have unseen disabilities, intellectual disability, autism, dyslexia. The biggest challenge I’ve faced is the fact that you try explaining that this child has a special need and people are like, ‘but he can talk, but he can walk’.
“We have been helping to change the narrative, including from our school thanks to all my colleagues at KCCL who put their heart and soul into helping our students.
“And now this golf project feels it actually has nothing to do with me, but everybody else that I represent, because I am fighting for people who cannot really fight for themselves and who cannot bring this conversation on the table.”
Anita cites her beloved late mother’s generation for taking the major leaps forward in tolerance towards those with a disability, and she acknowledges that the government today is working hard to maintain a positive momentum, including through the education system. Times are changing slowly for the better and there are more opportunities to break new ground.
In 2023, Anita served as a volunteer golf coach for the girls’ unified golf team that won a gold medal during the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin. “This opportunity changed my life because I was able to see what it looked like out there where athletes of all abilities were given an opportunity to showcase their best. I am proud to continue to volunteer for Special Olympics Kenya.”
Asked where she gets her determination from and Anita will say she was astounded at the bravery of her mother who battled an aggressive cancer for three years before passing away in 2021, never complaining, always looking straight ahead.
“Anytime I think I need to give up because nothing is working, I remember her. She looked at life like we depended on her. We wanted her more. We wanted her to be in our lives, running to Mom every time, running to get advice. She fought so hard to stay alive for us. And I feel like I have to fight so hard to change one story for one young person.”
“Passion is all I have to give…”
As Anita started to form the vision for what became Golden Tee, knowing she needed experience in delivering golf sessions, Anita studied to receive a ‘Level 2’ coaching badge with U.S. Kids Golf. In 2020 Covid came along (one email she wrote in 2019 looking for support was replied to positively… in 2022!). Her tireless effort in befriending golf societies and golf clubs resulted in donations of equipment: balls, tees and clubs and golf bags.
This allowed Anita and her friends to take youngsters to play in early morning competitions and practice sessions at the Airforce Golf Club, VetLab Golf Club and Royal Nairobi Golf Club. They would sometimes travel to the course in the early morning darkness to be able to join in the four-balls with the other golfing kids. As a single parent, Anita’s young son would be along for the ride.
“I think that is what made me realise this thing was bigger than just me. I needed to take my son with me at this time because I didn’t have anybody to leave him with, in order to make sure that all my children – I call them my children – have teed off OK. I am helping them with their badges, their bags, the balls, the gloves, the pens, everything. I also make sure I talk to each four-ball of kids who my children are playing with, and tell them to kindly understand this person has a learning disability, so please be patient with them if you see them getting agitated on the course. This all took more and more time and I needed some assistance.”
Friends gladly help but it is really all down to Anita. Many an evening she burns the midnight oil and works on her weekends when school isn’t running, emailing and emailing to find allies.
“As you know, golf is very demanding in terms of costs. Sometimes, it gets really tough for me to stay on course,” says Anita. “I want to be able to reach out to more children. Golden Tee’s mission is to reach underprivileged children with disabilities to give them a wonderful golf experience. Passion is all I have to give so I’ll keep pushing just to change one life.”
The prospects look promising for Golden Tee, though challenges remain. Since setting up, the nation’s key golf stakeholders, the Kenya Golf Union, and the nation’s Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) have shown their support, while sharing the Continent with the South African Disabled Golf Association (SADGA) has also been a factor.
The Ernie Els Foundation gave Anita free training to become the first Kenyan coach to be certified as an official programme provider for the Foundation’s #GameOnAutism, skills that have continued to help Anita serve her children.
The JGF and SADGA supported one of Anita’s students, Jimmy, who has the condition Erb’s Palsy, so he could travel to play in a South African Disabled Golf Open, which led to him proudly becoming the first of Golden Tee’s golfers to earn a place on the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability. Jimmy is returning to play in South Africa in November with Anita’s help and funding support from the Kenya Golf Union and the JGF.
Similarly, Anita was able to support another student, Collins, in his participation in the Macau Golf Masters, in China, held in September 2024, for golfers with intellectual disabilities, where Collins won a bronze medal. Collins has been playing golf with Anita for the whole eight years, since ‘day one’ at school as she puts it, so Collins’s success means so much to her.
Jimmy is now serving as the junior convenor at Kenya Railway Golf Club. “When Jimmy got his first sponsorship from the Junior Golf Foundation, I hadn’t even known if this was possible,” says Anita. “I was just writing, making endless calls, writing a thousand emails, just hoping they would back my dream. I realised that if we continue looking for the opportunities for these kids, if we make sure that these kids train in the sport, there’s no limitation for how far they can go.
“Now when I’m talking to other children, I tell them, look at Jimmy. He went to South Africa and he played there. Look at Collins, he went to Hong Kong, he played. They relate to this because children like seeing somebody they can look up to.”
Muthaiga Golf Club, Nairobi, was the first golf club to welcome and accommodate KCCL’s golf students when Anita’s dream began, so she was thrilled when the DP World Tour, supported by EDGA, staged the G4D Tour Magical Kenya Open at Muthaiga GC in February this year, competed for by some of the world’s leading players with disability on the World Ranking. Anita was in no doubt how much it will have boosted the positive thinking around G4D (golf for the disabled) in this country among the key organisations, and she looks forward to this event returning and one of the region’s players hopefully qualifying to play. And, ‘step one’ in that dream: there is a Golden Tee golfer on the World Ranking thanks to Jimmy’s hard work.
Anita knows she has to keep going regardless of each set back, just as Jimmy and Collins must carry on.
“I tell my students, you are going to play hole number one very, very poorly. But in golf, the next shot is the most important. So you never have an option to give up the next shot, that you have the opportunity is the most important thing. I keep telling them that you’ll play hole number one so poorly you will want to go home, but you just encourage yourself and remind yourself that the next shot is the most important. So I also remind myself the same thing.”
Recently in October, the children represented Golden Tee at a Rotary Club event at the Windsor Golf Hotel & Country Club in Nairobi; creating more positive momentum.
In closing, Anita urges us not to forget to mention that at the Kenya Railway Golf Club, during the Golden Tee clinic on October 6, the youngsters were planting the fruit trees to help them understand the value of conservation. “I feel that children with disabilities should have the opportunity to contribute to this very important aspect of life,” she says. They are planting the trees to protect this game for the future. Thanks to Anita their voices can be heard. Let’s trust the game is kind to all youngsters from here.
– You can find more details on Golden Tee on Facebook: just look for Golden Tee Inclusive Golf, and this is the same at LinkedIn. Or email to goldenteegolf23@gmail.com
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