YEAR ENDER: Kenyan women's rugby shows great potential

For years, Shujaa has been the face of Rugby in Kenya. When you hear the word rugby in the country, the usual suspects will always spring to mind. The Kayange brothers, Humphrey and Collins Injera, Billy Odhiambo, Willy Ambaka and Andrew Amonde.

These are some of the names that have made the team a constant fixture of the 15 "core teams" of the World Series, with a guaranteed place in all legs each season.

If you are into brawn rugby, you will also take a keen interest in the Kenya Simbas, or the 15s, who recently tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to gain a ticket to their maiden world-cup appearance by way of the November repechage that took place in Dubai.

Names like Innocent Simiyu, Benjamin Ayimba,Ted Omondi, Edward Rombo and Lucas Odhiambo spring to mind.

Moving to club rugby and the Kenya cup, You will hear of clubs like KCB RFC, Impala RFC, Nondescripts, Kenya Harlequins and Mean Machine RFC. How many of you, however, have heard of Yamanashi Impala or Northern Suburbs?

How many of you have heard of names like Judith Auma, Grace Adhiambo,Knight Otuoma and Naomi Amuguni? 

Chances are, you have barely heard of such names because women’s rugby isn’t well documented. It is despite the fact teams such as the national team 7s took part in the 2016 and 2020 olympic games, finishing 11th and 10th, respectively.

Most might probably not take note of the fact that Kenya, ranked 30th in world rugby, were runners-up at the 2019 Rugby Africa Women's Cup

It begs the question: How can women’s rugby in Kenya become more publicized? How can we produce more talent to add depth to both national teams, create a pathway and doorway for more clubs to be opened and attract more investors into the game in order to make it a household sport, just like in the case of their male counterparts?

A source close to Kenya Lionesses says that female players are not treated as equally as men especially from a financial point of view which demotivates quality players from getting to fulfill their rugby dreams.

“Women are usually paid in tiers,” she says, “There is no comparison between tier 3 male players and tier 1 female ones. They ask us to take heart. For example, a player from Nakuru may earn a call up to the lionesses, but after honoring it and taking pride in representing her country will earn something meager.

“It is barely enough to sustain her and give her the level of motivation required which makes her give up and focus on doing something else to earn a living. A lot of talent slips through the fingers because of that.”

The source adds  that there is alot of female talent, particularly from western Kenya that fail to earn the level of attention and recognition because no one is willing to invest in them.

“ For men, it's easier because almost everything, inclusive of accommodation is catered for.Personally, I had to relocate from Kisumu to Nairobi by my own means and look for ways to seek hosting from friends because I still wanted to fulfill my dreams.

“If we were given even half as good the level of conditions men are given, our rugby would make significant strides.”

Ronny Okoth, the youth development official at KRU, however, insists that KRU has made significant efforts to grow women’s rugby, just like women’s football in Kenya.

Football Kenya Federation created a women football league structure and started investing more in Harambee Starlets.

“It is really a matter of giving them more time and diverting lots of time to them, and also we consider gender in most of our activities. It is why we have Kenya cup men and also, Kenya cup women,” he says.

In early October, it was announced that girls’ 7s rugby would be introduced to school games from the start of next year, and Okoth insists that that is one way the women’s game will grow.

“As we speak, most club sides are struggling. The player pathway between clubs and schools is now wide because some players(who have the ability) get lost in between because of a lack of playing time. The introduction of the sport to girls’ secondary schools will help solve this problem.”

Former international and current womens’ national coach, Dennis Mwanja, suggests that the only way the women’s game potential can be realized in the country is replicating what was done 25 years ago with the men’s team. He insists there is no shortcut or “magic wand” that can be waved and insists on “trusting the process”.

“The team needs more coverage, exposure and friendlies. That goes hand in hand with that experience built. Shujaa took that path when we started having local circuits many years ago.

“It moved on to districts and different zones all over the country to popularize the sport. More people took it up and then Kenya started succeeding, so women’s rugby also has to go that way.”

Peris Mukoko is the women’s development co-ordinator at the Kenya Rugby Union. Mukoko, a former international herself, insists that it has taken a while for the whole world in general to start investing in the women’s game, citing perception as a male dominated sport as the reason.

“It is only fair to start these girls young and prepared because opportunities for them to be exposed and to gain experience is a global need now, let alone Kenyan. It is a good avenue for us to nurture sport.

This is a sport for all. It does not discriminate against anything.Most people believe it is a sport for men only. However, the structure and objective of world rugby is to get more women into the game by 2025.This (introducing girls rugby to schools) is just one way of helping achieve this.

Mukoko compares introducing girls 7s rugby to the girls’ school curriculum to being like a child crawling before walking and then running, and shares in coach Mwanja’s sentiments.

“We are working with a feeder system. It is easier to build into 7s and then gradually build into 15s. We are teaching the girls how to get into space because 7s is about that, before we eventually introduce 30 girls playing against each other.

“There are alot of resources and people involved in the background to ensure that basically everything is tied up together in 15s rugby.

“If you look at the history, in 2005, it would always be Safari 7s and then Elgon Cup. But right now, you can see the leaps and bounds that have been made and now both competitions are sustainable.”

Mukoko admits that funding has been a big hindrance to making the game develop as she ideally wants in the country.

“Funding is always an issue because you are never able to set up a friendly with — let us say, that hypothetically — a European side. It costs alot from a logistical perspective and even a financial one.

“Look at a side like South Africa before going to the world cup. They spent over two months in Europe building up towards this.

“They got the exposure and are building on the experience and when they come back to Africa and we are done with our pool system and we are going in for the RW15s, you will find out that they will be at an advantage  because they are building on the experience.

“Most sponsors only want to come on board once they see the results. People want to be associated with success. So it is building up to that and seeing how the ladies continue to get more exposure.”

Women’s rugby in Kenya has potential to get to men’s level, but needs to stop being looked at as an afterthought. The women have been punching above their weight in recent times.

Aside from the 15s doing well in Kampala, the 7s side did well at the Dubai International Invitational, where they did fairly well despite the financial challenges that were the elephant in the room and they traveled late.

They lost to Australia 33-0 in the main cup quarter final, having produced brilliant results like beating defending champions France 19-14 in the group stages.