In Paris

In a cocktail of sport, trade, culture and entertainment, Kenya’s sevens rugby team “Shujaa” were celebrated by their fans at the “Kenya House” in central Paris as they prepared to depart from the Paris Olympic Games after finishing 9th overall for the second straight Olympics.

Antoine Dupont-inspired hosts France were the shock winners of the men’s sevens tournament stunning red-hot pre-competition favourites Fiji by storming to the gold medal with a 28-7 victory at the Stade de France on Saturday night.

It was at the same venue that hosts “Les Bleus” were edged out in the 15s Rugby World Cup final last year by South Africa, Saturday’s win coming as a slight consolation.

“Shujaa” defeated Samoa 10-5 in the play-off for ninth and 10th place to finish ninth overall in the 12-team competition and are expected back home Monday.

The “Kenya House” is a set-up set up under the ambit of the State Department of Culture to showcase Kenya’s trade, tourism, sports and culture attractions.

Kenyan tea, coffee, beadwork and other unique items are up for sale to locals and tourists with Culture Principal Secretary Ummi Bashir observing yesterday that the “Kenya House” campaign concept has proved successful since it was launched at the 2012 London Olympic Games by the then President Mwai Kibaki.

There was a “Kenya House” in Birmingham during the 2022 Commonwealth Games and a virtual one at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that were held behind closed doors as the coronavirus pandemic continued to bite.

“Even after the Paris Olympic Games close on August 11, we shall continue drumming up the Kenyan story through our missions abroad because we have seen the impact to tourist arrivals inspired by the Kenya House idea since 2012,” PS Bashir noted.

Meanwhile, her Sports counterpart Peter Tum received head coach Kevin Wambua and the sevens rugby team members to a farewell reception at “Kenya House” with a promise that the government will work on a permanent training base for the rugby stars.

“We have already discussed with the in-coming Cabinet Secretary for Sports (Kipchumba Murkomen) the idea of having you get a permanent home either at the new Talanta stadium coming up or at Kasarani,” Tum pledged.

“Shujaa” performed commendably considering that they were up against fully professional elite teams that train all year round, and which have been preparing for the Paris Olympics for the last three years.

“Shujaa” players and management implored the government and rugby union to have the players on full professional contracts with salaries in order to make them fully focus on delivery.

The same can be said of the women’s volleyball team, “Malkia Strikers”, who play their opening pool game at these Olympics against favourites Brazil from 1pm Monday, local time, which is 2pm Kenyan time.

Poland recovered from a set down to beat Japan 3-1 in an exciting opening Pool ‘B’ game Sunday, the sets reading 20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 28-26 at the South Paris Arena.

It would be unrealistic to expect a Kenyan win given the gulf of experience between “Malkia Strikers” and the South Americans.

Brazil are ranked top in the world with Kenya at 20th place. Poland are fourth and Japan seventh, making a Kenyan break out of this group pretty hard even with head coach Japheth Munala’s efforts that have seen the team pitch camp in Miramas, Southern France, for the last fortnight.