- The Kenya 7s had not trained for the last two weeks over contract issues.
- The 24/25 Series kicks off on 30 November in Dubai.
The men’s national rugby 7s team, Shujaa, has finally returned to the pitch for their training after receiving their contracts from the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU), SportPesa Blog can confirm.
However, a majority of senior members are yet to return to the team over differences in the contractual terms being given to them by KRU.
SportPesa Blog had written earlier that the Kenya 7s had not taken part in any team training since clinching the Safari 7s 2024 title in Machakos back on October 13 owing to contractual issues between them and the country’s rugby governing body KRU.
At the time, the players vowed not to take part in any training sessions before getting a binding contract from KRU ahead of their return to the 24/25 HSBC SVNS Series following their promotion from the Challenger Series.
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On Monday 4 November, the players finally signed the contracts and got back to team training but senior players did not sign on the dotted line after feeling some of their demands were not met.
SportPesa Blog visited the team training on Tuesday and some of the players missing included Vincent Onyala, Tony Omondi, Kevin Wekesa, George ‘Japolo’ Ooro and Chrisant Ojwang.
The five players were key members of a Shujaa side that enjoyed a phenomenal year which saw them get promoted back to the top tier, earn a ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics and win the 2023 Rugby Africa 7s Cup.
While negotiations are not yet concluded, some of the issues in contention ranged from medical coverage, salary amounts being offered by KRU as well as some of the terms in the contract.
With John Okoth also ruled out with a long-term injury after undergoing surgery, and Brian Tanga also out with injury, Shujaa only has Samuel Asati, Daniel Taabu, Nygel Amaitsa, Patrick Odongo and William Mwanji as the core players.
In that remaining squad, only Taabu has Series experience with the rest yet to make their debut at the top stage.
Aside form the five, the other players training with the Kenya 7s include Dennis Abukuse, Lameck Ambetsa, Benson Salem, Floyd Wabwire, Brian Mutua, Augustine Owino, Philip Okeyo, Michael Wamalwa, Brian Ondego, Elvis Olukusi and rookie Jackson Siketi.
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Kenya 7s 24/25 World Rugby 7s Series Calendar (First 5 rounds)
Dubai 7s – 30 Nov to 1 1 December 2024
Cape Town 7s -7 to 8 December 2024
Perth 7s – 24 to 26 January 2025
Vancouver 7s – 21 to 23 Feb 2025
Hong Kong – 28 to 30 March 2025
