The Kenya Sevens teams Shujaa and Fifteens team Simba have announced plans to withdraw from the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Communicating the decision, the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) chairman Richard Omwela indicated that the team was suffering financial constraints.
In his statement, Omwela revealed that they had presented a budget of Ksh124 million which was accepted by the Ministry of Sport after their sponsor pulled out.
[caption caption="Kenya Sevens teams Shujaa"]
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Following a series of consultative meetings, the Ministry of Sport disbursed Ksh31 million in early February to KRU.
"This amount has been used to support our national squads in various assignments and we thank the Government for this," KRU noted.
"Several meetings between the Ministry and KRU have since taken place, the latest one on May 29 where assurances that part payment of the balance would be made to the KRU by June 5.
"No further payment has been received to date despite assurances to the contrary. Operations of the KRU 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 Rugby Union lamented.
KRU noted that for instance, the Simbas are set to begin their fifteens Rugby World Cup qualification matches by playing an away match in Morocco on June 23.
Besides, the teams will also have four other fixtures and training programs between June and August 2018.
[caption caption="The masked #MakeItKenya branding during Paris Sevens"]
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"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)."
Given the financial crisis, the union concluded that: "in the absence of Government support, KRU is considering pulling all its representative squads out of international assignments."
KRU further promised to take action to avert the ugly incident during Paris Sevens where Kenya Sevens team masked the #MakeItKenya branding citing unpaid dues.
