Super Shaban in Shujaa squad due to public demand

Due to public demand, Shaban Ahmed, the Most Valuable Player of the National Sevens Circuit, has been included in the Shujaa squad for the upcoming assignments.

Ahmed had initially been omitted from the 42-man provisional list released on Tuesday by the Kenyan Rugby Union.

However, owing to a raging social media backlash over his exclusion despite a stellar season, the union has been forced to swallow the bullet and include him in the squad.

Shaban was both the top try and top points scorer at 25 and 167 respectively in the just concluded 2017 National Sevens Series.

Besides his eye for tries, he also steered his club, KCB, to the Prinsloo 7s title where he was named the Most Valuable Player.

But despite his heroics that stood out tall like a giraffe in the jungle, the name of the former Mwamba RFC player still failed to make it in the list.

The 28-year-old KCB scrum-half was influential in converting the conversions for the bankers and for the second time, this season, was named the Most Valuable Player at the Dala Sevens.

With his inclusion in the provisional squad, he will now fight to make it in the squad ahead of the upcoming campaign in Hong Kong and Dubai.

Besides Ahmed, Joshua “Reign” Chisanga and Darwin Mukidza were omitted from provincial squad despite being pillars for their local clubs in the circuit.

Darwin turned out for KCB and single handedly steered the team to the Prinsloo Sevens title while Chisanga battled for Homeboyz who were crowned the Dala Sevens Champions.

Meanwhile, there are seven key Kenya Simbas players (Jacob Ojee, Martin Owilla, Eliknson Musonye, Samson Onsomu, Levy Amunga, David Ambunya, and Alex Olaba) in the  15s squad.

In November, the Simbas will head Hong Kong for the Four Nations Tournament while Kenya Sevens will head to South Africa this week for the Assupol Sevens before attending Safland 7s in Namibia.