Shujaa, the Kenya Sevens team received a major boost ahead of the opening two legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series that starts in Dubai on November 30 before landing in Cape Town, South Africa.

SportPesa and Safaricom – through their Mpesa brand – have shelled a combined Sh75 million per year sponsorship for the men’s and women’s team. Thomas Odundo, the Kenya Rugby Union Chief Executive Officer broke down the sponsorship to SNA. 

He explained SportPesa who had scaled down their sponsorship to Sh22 million per year when Kenya was relegated last season nearly doubled their support to Sh42 million in the first year rising to Sh49 million in the second. 

From the Sh42 million sponsorship by SportPesa, close to Sh 32 million will be channeled to the men’s team and the balance to the women’s team which has less international assignments. 

Safaricom’s sponsorship of Sh90 million will be for two years. Odundo further stated that nearly 80% of the sponsorship money shall be allocated to the player’s payroll. To put this in perspective, the CEO offered that the total payables budget of the men’s team was slightly over Sh105 million and the women’s Sh58 million. 

“Our budget is much smaller than that of the teams Shujaa is competing against,” Odundo clarified. Does the sponsorship mean that player’s allowances – that has been a thorn in the side of KRU for many years – have been settled? Not really.

Outstanding arrears

The CEO said they still had arrears for the men’s team that they hope to clear soon while the bulk of arrears for the women’s team was still outstanding. “The sponsorship will ease some of the burden but we still have some outstanding allowances to settle,” Odundo admitted.

Overall, the CEO admitted the two sponsorships were a big step forward since 2016/2017 when the team was sponsored by Kenya Airways. “It is something we can build on,” he added.

The Kenya Sevens team has a squad of 22-25 players and their contracts are in four levels with the leadership, senior players, middle tier and development players who have different allowances structures. The women’s team which secured sponsorship for the first time has players in three tiers.

Sadly, the sponsorship only covers teams in the shorter version of the game with the 15’s squad which will compete in the World Cup Qualifier next year still without a sponsor.