Disburse the cash now, broke KRU pleads with government

Broke Kenya Rugby Union has called on the government to honour its pledge of supporting sports federations in the wake of the financial turmoil.

KRU are without a sponsor following the withdrawal of a leading gaming firm which had entered into a four-year partnership with them in 2016.

According to the Union’s Chief Executive Officer, Ronald Bukusi, the government had approved their budget of Sh 122 million but only Sh 31 million has since been disbursed.

“As things stand, the Simbas has a budget of almost Sh 40 million to finish the qualifiers which run towards the end of August,” Bukusi said, alluding to the huge monies needed amidst the financial crunch.

In a separate interview, Director of Rugby Thomas Odundo expressed his concern at the delay in releasing the funds.

“We have a series of tournaments for the women’s rugby team in June and July in Europe, the Safari Sevens later this year and Dubai Sevens in December . All this requires money.”

“Rugby is a continuous sport so one can’t start preparing for a tournament two weeks before because you have to contract the players and the coaches, pay for meals, work on strength and conditioning in the gym, have supplementation, be well kitted and be insured in case of player injuries,” he said.

“There are some expenses which Rugby Africa doesn’t cater for andwhen you add it all up you get figures amounting to about Sh 300 million for all the national teams programmes.”

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government Kenya Rugby Union pleads for cash

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