The Kenya Rugby Union has made ‘new’ appointments to the national teams. Letters have been sent to confirm the appointments of Mitch Ocholla as the national seven-a-side team assistant coach with Felix Ochieng as the analyst and Steve Sewe as team manager.
Tito Oduk will be the new assistant coach of the 15’s team where he replaces Charles Ngovi. When the team returned from Tunisia, there was talk of Michael Otieno being replaced by Ham Onsando as the head coach.
But, Sportsnewsarena.com learned that KRU did not make an offer to Onsando Onsando who is the secretary of the technical committee headed by Isaac Mwangi. Kevin Wambua, a utility back for Mwamba RFC is the new coach for the women’s seven-a-side team. There is no mention of Sammy Kemmey who has been in charge.
The women’s team is expected to travel Morocco next month for the Rugby World Cup Sevens qualifiers.
The women’s 15’s team which was also handled by Kemmey have a new coach in Allan Omuyakhu who also handles the United States International University – Africa side. His assistant is Enos Otieno.
John Asila from Kakamega is the new assistant coach for the under-19 team with John Okong’o from Siaya MTC as the team manager. It is not clear whether Paul Murunga has been retained as coach of the junior team.
The appointments have been hushed and no advertisement or interviews were done except for the national seven-a-side team. Sportsnewsarena.com was still waiting for a reply from the KRU on the criteria used for appointing the coaches.
In the meantime, 43 players reported to camp on Wednesday to battle it out for the national-seven-a-side team which will be coached my Michael Friday who was due to arrive early Thursday.
The team will be in camp until Sunday after which some will be dropped. There has been two significant player transfers. Nato Simiyu and Felix Ayange have moved from Impala and Strathmore University to Kenya Harlequin FC.
Nato links up with his elder brother Victor Sudi. Innocent Simiyu who has had a distinguished playing record is coach of Impala.
He confirmed Nato’s move to Quins saying his younger brother wanted more competition at training and challenge during matches.
Elsewhere, Kenya Commercial Bank declined to accept the Enterprise Cup after differences emerged between the KRU and the semi-finalists.
It is the first time that the winner of the grand trophy of Kenya has ended in such acrimony.
KRU had ordered Quins to play their semi-final against KCB while Quins had the bulk of their players in the national team in Tunisia.
The Union also ordered a replay of the semi-final between Impala and Nondescripts RUFC.
The clubs declined although the KRU explained this was not in order as an earlier match had been a memorial match for one of the fallen players.
Eric Odanga
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