KRU gifted 50 acres by the State to construct stadium, training centre
Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba hands over a Sh3 million cheque to Kenya Rugby Union Chairman Sasha Mutai and Shujaa players on September 19, 2023 to reward them for qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
What you need to know:
- President William Ruto gave the triumphant Kenya Sevens team a Sh3 million award for winning the Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens title to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games
- Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Youth Affairs and the Arts, Ababu Namwamba, said that Kenyan rugby needs to have a home, adding that the government will work with KRU to actualise that dream
- Each of the 12 national team players will receive Sh200,000 while the six members of the technical bench will pocket Sh100,000
The government Tuesday allocated 50 acres at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi to Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) for the construction of a stadium and a high-performance training centre.
At the same time, President William Ruto gave the triumphant Kenya Sevens team a Sh3 million award for winning the Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens title to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Youth Affairs and the Arts, Ababu Namwamba, said that Kenyan rugby needs to have a home, adding that the government will work with KRU to actualise that dream.
“These players need a training environment that gives them opportunities to compete with the rest. We need to develop that plot into the home of rugby so as to rival heavyweights like South Africa,” said Namwamba.
The CS spoke when he hosted the Kenya Sevens team for breakfast on Tuesday at Weston Hotel in Nairobi. The team arrived on Monday night from Harare, Zimbabwe where they stunned South Africa 17-12 in the final of the Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens tournament.
Kenya Sevens will be featuring in their third consecutive Olympic Games in Paris.
During the breakfast, the CS asked the players and officials present to hold a minute of silence in honour of Sophia Atieno, the mother of Kenya 7s player Patrick Odongo, who passed on before the team left for Harare.
Sports Principal Secretary Peter Tum, KRU chairman Sasha Mutai, West Pokot Senator Julius Murgor and the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) secretary general Francis Mutuku attended the breakfast meeting.
Each of the 12 national team players will receive Sh200,000 while the six members of the technical bench will pocket Sh100,000. Namwamba said that 10 years ago when he was the Sports minister in the Government of National Unity during the regime of the late President Mwai Kibaki, he visited South Africa national sevens team Springboks’ high-performance training centre at Stellenbosch.
“The place is truly elite and on another scale in terms of rugby training ,” he said.
