Omwela returns to 'unfamiliar' grounds: Kenya Rugby Union boss will find the union different from the one he left in 2011

Newly elected Chairman Kenya Rugbby Union Richard Omwela address delegates immediately after he was elected during Kenya Rugby Union AGM on tuesday, March 17th, 2015. PHOTO/ JONAH ONYANGO.

New Kenya Rugby Union chairman Richard Omwela will find a different outfit from the one he left in 2011.

He left at a time when things were looking up. The national Rugby 15s team had just come from an unbeaten season.

In the 2009/2010 IRB Sevens Series, Kenya 7s rugby had just clocked its best position, at 6th under Benjamin Ayimba. The finances were awesome! There was even talk of building a Sh2 billion stadium.

Despite his credentials, Omwela (pictured) still lost the 2011 election to Mwangi Muthee, former international prop and Mwamba RFC chairman. 

The Omwela regime interpreted the Union Board’s role as being that of seeking resource and catering for the international and the feeder game – age grade and schools. The results were exemplary.

Unfortunately, none of these constituents vote. The voting constituents, senior rugby – basically, club rugby were somewhat disgruntled.

The Muthee electoral machine isolated Ngong Road based clubs – Impala, Kenya Harlequin and Nondescripts. The rift created in the game  is yet to be healed. The struggle to honour fixtures, was and still is real, except for a few institutional clubs.

The pinch was felt more at the nationwide level. The Rugby Mashinani call thereby masked deeper affiliate discontent. In the interceding years, everything that can go wrong has done so. Accusations of resource misappropriation are rife. Clubs talk at each other. Some people have become influential in the game without a trace of ever having led a successful rugby outfit. There is more talk of voting than of playing the game!

This is the union whose mantle Omwela took up last Tuesday. Even then, only after Justice Alfred Mabeya, allowed the Annual General Meeting to proceed. Mabeya reminded all that sports need to ‘be played in stadia rather than in courtrooms and tribunals.’

A faction had sought to derail the scheduled AGM. So, where does the decorated game governor begin?

There is the elephant in the room around the impropriety claims on some directors. Not even private corporate bodies, including media, have been exempt from these accusations.

There is strong feeling in the game that the impending clean-up is not so much to impress anybody outside the oval fraternity.

Omwela’s final legacy is bound to be set around how he handles the affiliates. Kenya Cup affiliates have a different set of needs from Nationwide ones but they are all pressing.

-Ollows is a former Kenya Rugby international