Promoting Queens is proud to announce a new chapter in our mission to empower girls through chess. We are excited to welcome Dickson Gitari as our Nakuru Program Coordinator, a partnership that will bring the spirit of Promoting Queens to girls across Nakuru County, Kenya.
A Coach Built From the Ground Up
Dickson Gitari is a self-made sports coach who has spent 25 years running community soccer through his youth team, the Nakuru Youth Sports Association (NYSA). Chess found him almost by accident. At 14, while trying to dodge a mandatory school club and stay on the soccer field, he ducked into the nearest room to avoid his principal, and it happened to be the chess club. He talked his way through on the spot, and that unplanned detour became the start of a lifelong relationship with the game, one his older brother helped deepen by teaching him at home.
Dickson played chess for fun throughout high school but set it aside for soccer once he graduated, picking it up only casually at a local spot in Nakuru where people gathered to play. It would take a crisis years later to bring him back to the board for good.
Turning Hardship Into Purpose
When the pandemic shut down his soccer project, Dickson lost his income, fell behind on rent, and was eventually evicted and jailed for the arrears. He spent three months in jail before his soccer friends raised the money for his release. It was during that time, with nothing but time to think, that he began planning his next move. Sports volunteering and a soccer academy were both out of reach financially. Chess was the one option he could actually afford to start.
The plan looked simple on paper. Putting it into action was not. Chess barely existed in Nakuru's schools at the time. The turning point came when Dickson attended an open and juniors chess tournament and discovered there wasn't a single child from Nakuru competing. He challenged the organizers about it, was introduced to the president of Chess Kenya, and was told plainly that if he thought he could fix that, he had their blessing to try.
He did. Dickson started talking to parents, picked up his first two students, then pulled 30 boys from his own soccer project to form what would become Nakuru Chess Academy (NCA). He requested and won permission to host Nakuru's own regional qualifiers instead of sending children to Nairobi. To build the numbers needed, he walked from school to school on foot, often without money for two meals a day, introducing the game one classroom at a time.
From One Tournament to a Movement
Along the way, Dickson connected with Phyllis Ngigi of The Gift of Chess, who donated 120 chess boards that he distributed across the schools he had reached. NCA held its first tournament in October 2021 with 41 students. By March 2022, its first Nakuru regional qualifiers drew 350 students. Today, NCA tournaments regularly host between 400 and 1,200 students, and the academy has produced 6 national junior champions in Kenya, more regional and national champions than any other program in the country.
Nakuru is now impossible to leave out of any conversation about chess in Kenya, and Dickson built that from nothing.
Bringing Promoting Queens to Nakuru
As our Nakuru Program Coordinator, Dickson will lead the Promoting Queens partnership with Nakuru Chess Academy to empower girls through chess as a tool for confidence, strategic thinking, decision-making, communication, teamwork, and leadership. His vision is to bring chess to all of Nakuru County's more than 200 schools, both primary and secondary, and he has long believed that vision only becomes real through partnerships with people and organizations who believe chess can change lives.
This partnership marks another step in Promoting Queens' growing presence in Kenya and reflects the same values that guide our work everywhere else.
Already in Action: St. Mary's Girls Secondary School
The partnership is already off the ground. On September 15, Coach Dickson and a team of coaches introduced chess to the girls at St. Mary's Girls Secondary School for the first time. This marked the start of a chess club at the school, with sessions planned every other week going forward.
A follow-up session took place on September 17, where the girls recapped their introduction to chess, met the chess pieces, and learned about the importance of the game. It's an early but meaningful step to
A Shared Vision
Dickson's story, from a chance detour into a chess club to building the strongest junior chess program in Kenya out of nothing but persistence, mirrors exactly what Promoting Queens set out to do: prove that chess can change the course of a life. His deep roots in the Nakuru community, his relationships with schools and families, and his relentless drive make him uniquely positioned to lead our work there.
We are grateful for his commitment and excited for what lies ahead as Promoting Queens deepens its roots in Nakuru. Together, we look forward to helping more girls discover the game of chess and the confidence, community, and opportunity that come with it.
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