Panic grips KRU as Gov’t acts tough after Paris debacle

The Ministry of Sports is probing events that led to Kenya Sevens Rugby team concealing the ‘Make It Kenya’ branding on their jerseys during the Paris Sevens in France.

Shujaa players took the rash decision to conceal the ‘Make It Kenya’ branding on their kits leaving Kenya Rugby Union with egg on the face while Brand Kenya and the Ministry of Sports were left tongue-tied.

And barely 48 hrs after the embarrassing incident, Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Achesa has said that they have summoned the Kenya Rugby Union officials to clear the air around the incident, adding that Sh 80 million had been allocated to the team before they departed for France to compete at the Paris Sevens, the last leg of the IRB World Rugby Series this term.

Achesa was speaking at the Aberdare Country Club in Nyeri County where he opened a four-day sports stakeholders workshop aimed at improving sports as a social economic activity in the country.

At the same time,  the CS said that they are investigating the bribery incident against Fifa referee Aden Marwa,adding that they had summoned Football Kenya Federation over the same.

Achesa added that should Marwa be found guilty, he will face the full force of the law.

An video of Marwa receiving bribe surfaced last week in an expose by Ghanaian journalist unearthing the prevalence of match-fixing practices in Ghana and Africa at large.

The turn of events forced Marwa, who until then was Kenya’s high-flying whistle-blower, to resign from officiating at  this year’s Fifa World Cup finals in Russia where he was to be one of the assistant referees.

It also led to the resignation of resignation of Ghanaian FA president and the suspension of the country’s football federation.

Meanwhile, the Kenya Rugby Union on Tuesday released a statement contradicting the Sports CS assertion that they were handed Sh 80 million prior to the team’s departure for Paris.

The union, in its statement argued that it only received Sh 31 million out of a budget of Sh 124 million.

“The Kenya Rugby Union wishes to clarify that it has only received Sh 31m out of a budget of Sh 124m that was presented to and accepted by the Ministry of Sports after our headline partner pulled out .

“Following a meeting with the Ministry of Sports on January 10, it presented a budget of Ksh 124m two days later. (January 12). A second meeting with the Ministry took place on January 15 before the K.R.U received a payment of Ksh 31m in early February. This amount has been used to support our national squads in various assignments and we thank the Government for this.

“Several meetings between the Ministry and K.R.U have since taken place, the latest one on May 29 where assurances that part payment of the balance would be made to the K.R.U by June 5.

“No further payment has been received to date despite assurances to the contrary. Operations of the K.R.U have ground to a halt at a time when our two national squads, Simba and Shujaa are preparing for critical assignments in the coming days.

“The Simbas are set to begin their fifteens Rugby World Cup qualification process with a match away to Morocco on June 23 and will have four other fixtures and training programs between now and August.

“Shujaa are preparing for the sevens Rugby World Cup tournament in San Francisco in July, a tournament where they have reached the cup semis twice in a row (2009 and 2013).

“In the absence of Government support, K.R.U is considering pulling all its representative squads out of international assignments.

“In light of the fiasco in Paris this past weekend, the K.R.U will take action to make sure that this does not happen again.”

Additional reporting by Bernard Ndong