Six football teams from Kasarani on Wednesday received a sponsorship in the sum of Five million courtesy of SportPesa in the launch of the grassroots football sponsorship program in an event that was presided over by Sports CS Ababu Namwamba.

The six teams got five million as sponsorship plus team kits in a move to build football talent from the grassroots level and help the youth under the Talanta hela initiative.

The six teams that benefited from the program are; Victors Faith, Mwiki United, Ruai United, Kasarani FC, Maji Mazuri and a ladies' team Ruai Starlets.

“This five million to these six teams is to the grassroots and I am so happy because this is perfect harmony with the Talanta hela initiative. I want to assure you that the ministry is doing its best to further sports in the country.”

The CS also lauded the area MP Ronald Karauri, who is the former SportPesa CEO, for the initiative that will help a lot of youth in the area.

“Something that brings us together mostly as a country is sports. That’s why I would like to congratulate MP Karauri for doing his best to sponsor six grassroots teams,” he added.

Karauri encouraged the teams to make the most out of the season-long sponsorship as he reiterated Sport Pesa’s commitment to supporting teams from the lower tiers.

“As SportPesa, we have always had a program of supporting grassroots football from way before. Previously we paid for the FKF affiliation fees to ensure that all the teams get to play and now we have this sponsorship,” he said

“Our aim is that this sponsorship will help these teams to climb up their respective leagues and earn promotion to the next level. I want to see the respective teams from Kasarani going on to become the biggest in Nairobi.”

Ruai Starlets captain Mary Wangeci expressed her delight after her team was selected to benefit from the sponsorship by Sport Pesa.

“We thought as girls that we would be left behind but I am thankful to SportPesa for giving us this sponsorship. We had serious challenges before but now we are proud to own two sets of playing jerseys which will ease the burden on us.”