Kenya Shines in San Diego Sevens Rugby
An impressive entourage of Kenyan fans from all over the country was present at San Diego’s Petco park for the USA round of the international sevens circuit rugby tournament. This is the fourth stop in the tournament which visits upon 8 locations worldwide starting in Dubai, South Africa, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong, Australia, England and finishing up in Scotland. To say the least, our lads did not disappoint. The showing was strong, as they came out the gates with a 38-0 stomping over Chile and an impressive 19-7 win over Canada. Day 1 ended with a hard fought loss 19-12 loss to Argentina pitting them against a powerful England team for day 2. The Kenyan team, having to deal with numerous questions from the media of unrest in the country appeared focused on the task at hand, a good showing after a dismal result in New Zealand prior to arrival in San Diego was paramount as Kenyan captain Benjamin Ayimba put it.
Day 2 was quite a treat. In what is perhaps as bad a show of sportsmanship as there is, we are now learning that the English team refused to share a locker room with the Kenyan team forcing our lads to share one with the Fijian team. Unperturbed, the lads took the game to the Englishmen behind a vociferous fan contingent that urged on the Kenyan team to a 17-7 win. The Kenyans tackled well, which is critical more so in sevens rugby than in fifteen’s since it is largely man on man play. The tournament program referred to Kenyans as ‘Soft’ and ones tending to play ‘opportunistic’ rugby that capitalized on opponent mistakes behind a ‘prevent defense to use the gridiron term’. It continued that ‘any fundamentally sound team’ that does not turn the ball over should be able to defeat the Kenyan side with relative ease. The Kenyan team however, appeared more ‘fundamentally sound’ playing tight defense against a physically bigger English team and held them to one score while they themselves controlled the ball well enough on offense to score thrice (once in the first half, twice in the second half). All scores by the speedy Dennis Mwanja.
A semi-final meet with New Zealand’s vaunted All Blacks knocked the lads out 50-10 but they still have something to take home. The score, albeit lop-sided does not do justice to a good (not great) showing by the Kenyans keeping in mind they had overcome good opposition to earn a berth in the semis . The more experienced New Zealanders capitalized on lapses in Kenya’s kick offs thrice scoring after recovering the ball and racing to the try line without much defence from the Kenyan team. Two hard earned scores later and the half-time score was 33-0. The lads put on a spirited fight and scored twice in the second half. Incredibly, these were the first points conceded by New Zealand throughout the tournament. At the end though, Kenya was on the wrong side of history being made as the All Blacks earned a record 35th successive win with the victory. They moved on to win the tournament by beating a plucky and hard-tackling South African side 27-12.
THE GOOD
* Kenya played with a white arm band all tournament through signifying peace in the motherland after the election-fueled unrest witnessed in the country for close to a month.
* It is always good to see the large contingent of Kenyans at the Park and support for all things Kenyan. I am compiling a post on this to document the various initiatives.
* San Diego is beautiful and Petco Park hosted a wonderful incident-free tournament.
THE BAD
* Beverages are unbelievably expensive at Petco park. Additionally, limited variety on such beverages makes you wonder who the target really is at the ball park - die hard, obscenity yelling, potbellied baseball fan?
* Having a group from New Zealand perform a variation of native dances prior to the Semi Final meet between Kenya and New Zealand on the field was badly received, and rightly so, by the Kenyan fans. One close to me actually remarked that we should have brought out a few Maasai dancers to also showcase our dancing abilities? Such performances do give the impression that a team is being given a slight over another - this was a bad time for such a show.
(Re)Creation of Kenya - San Diego take 1
“God created Kenya to assist rugby take over the world. What’s your excuse?”
That was one of the more colorful captions on a fan t-shirt as sunny San Diego readied to host a contingent of Kenyans from all walks of life most of whom reside in the US. There were at least 7 other countrymen on our flight into Lindberg Field (Airport) in San Diego, and a few others we met at the car rental office. Even before we hit highway 5 to the city of Del Mar, where we will be staying for the next few days, we had already met about 20 fellow Kenyans. We arrived a bit late, our flight in was delayed and San Diego, is unseasonably cold. There are events lined up throughout the weekend. We all seem to agree that there is a lot that needs to be done, and are willing to do our part. At one of the events last night there were Kenyan flags, t-shirts, outfits and camaraderie was witnessed all over the place. Today promises not just good old rugby but also a chance for us to meet and talk to our fellow countrymen and hopefully help alleviate some of the strife in Kenya.
Aside: I talked to an individual whose family resides in Kisumu who lost his mom when her house was torched by attackers. His pain was visible as he narrated his ordeal and what his family has had to go through for the last few weeks. This, to me, makes the issue very real, and underscores the importance of banding together for these types of events for a good cause. He talked about his pain, more so against certain ‘Kikuyus’. You can easily see how the conflict in Kenya can and will affect friends far away from the conflict. What happens in Kenya, truly does not just stay in Kenya. There are very real victims and stories to be told out here as well.
We are headed to Petco park today. More stories and pictures as well as soon as I can figure out my new point-and-click.
Initiatives for Change
I sat in on a discussion last night amongst Kenyans in my community trying to make a positive contribution to help alleviate the situation in our country right now. Beyond prayers and decrying the tribalism evidenced at home at previous meetings, there was also a deep sense of purpose. The idea was to champion a cause under the banner of ‘A Tribe Called Kenya’ whose purpose is pretty self-explanatory if you ask me. The consensus was that negativity will flourish unless concerted voices of reason do something, and that something be done quickly. I am heading to San Diego this week for the rugby tournament and will attempt to chronicle the events as they unfold. I have been there once and blogged about my experience here, I imagine, the camaraderie will be even more so heightened by the situation in the country. Various initiatives are being brought to light as a result:
VUMA Kenya – An initiative by young professionals and well wishers to assist the disaster efforts of established disaster relief agencies by raising funds.
One Nation One Party – Initiative in conjunction with Virgin Atlantic and Capital FM to raise money for the Sadili Kibera Kids and Kenya Redcross at this year’s USA Sevens Rugby Tournament in San Diego
Additionally, appeals are out for folks in the Dallas, Fort Worth (Texas) areas for any clothes (new and/or used) to be donated to IDP camps in Kenya. Anyone in this area willing to donate can contact me via my contact page or email MagaidiAfrika[at]Yahoo.com
On another note: good take (IMHO) by the LA Times in their editorial of the situation in Kenya, the killing of legislator Mugabe Were and what it portends for democracy in Kenya
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About
Magaidi.com is the journal of the African kid. A diary of sorts, a collection of musings and a discussion point on the way forward for the motherland.
