Lead image for Newcomers out to challenge old order as secondary schools national games kick off.
M-Pesa Foundation Academy in Kiambu County comes alive on Sunday, August 2, morning when the 2026 Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) Term Two National Games kick off, with teams from across the country competing in 14 disciplines.
The championship will run until Thursday.
Besides football, volleyball, netball, basketball 3x3, rugby 7s, table tennis and lawn tennis, which have traditionally been contested in term two, this year’s championship will involve six new disciplines. They are baseball, lacrosse, beach volleyball, cricket, chess and scrabble.
Mang’u High School and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) will host lacrosse, baseball, cricket, and beach volleyball competitions, while the rest of the disciplines will take place at the M-Pesa Foundation Academy.
Sunday’s matches will be preceded by an opening ceremony, which is expected to be graced by senior officials from the Ministry of Education and KSSSA. The top three teams from each discipline will qualify for the Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association (FEASSSA) championships which will be held in Morogoro, Tanzania from August 12 to 23.
Meanhile, after ending St Joseph’s Girls Kitale’s dominance in rugby in Rift Valley region, Itigo Girls High School are determined to prove that their regional triumph was no fluke as they prepare for the national championships.
The school from Nandi county head to the national competition full of confidence after producing one of the biggest upsets at the Rift Valley Games in Narok, where they stunned former champions St Joseph’s Girls Kitale 19-0 in the final to lift the regional title.
The victory marked a major milestone for the school, ending the dominance of one of the region’s most successful rugby programmes and earning Itigo a place among the country’s elite school teams. The players now believe they have what it takes to compete with the best at the national level.