Kenya Sevens team: “We are broke, bear with us,” says Omwela

Lavin Asego of Kenya is tackled by Carlin Isles of the United State during their qualifying match of Tokyo Sevens rugby tournament in Tokyo, Saturday, April 4, 2015. Kenya won the match 27-5. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)Caption

The Kenya Sevens team training camp has been postponed indefinitely, FeverPitch can authoritatively reveal.

Shujaa was expected to resume training on Monday as they prepare for the Olympic Qualifiers in November and the 2015-16 IRB season that kicks off in December.

However, on Friday, the team led by team manager Steve Sewe and captain Andrew Amonde threatened to boycott training demanding three months’ unpaid salary and implementation of the 2011 High Performance Program by the Kenya Rugby Union.

But in an interview with Feverpitch, KRU Chairman Richard Omwela, expressed his disappointment at the technical bench members’ involvement in strike threat, but promised to settle the outstanding salaries once their sponsors Kenya Airways remit the money.

“The training has been postponed, the players don’t want to train because there is no money. We don’t have money. When we get some, they will go back and train. It is something that is a chicken and egg situation,” said Omwela.

“The players already knew we didn’t have money to pay them. In fact, prior to the press conference, we had told them about the program that we wanted to put in place to get the money to pay them. May, June and July salaries have not been paid because their contract expires at the end of this month. We are putting everything in place to be able to pay them. So we will delay the training program for a week or two so that we sort that out.

“I was surprised and horrified to see the technical bench in the press conference, yet they are part of the management. If anybody should understand better, it is them and not the players.

“They should be liaising between the union and players. For them to sit there and make demands, it is totally unacceptable and we will have to re-look at the technical bench going forward.

“We cannot have trade unionists who are part of the management. So for me, it is a no go zone, we are re-looking at that and decide what to do.

“In respect of the High performance program, it’s a question of funding once we have funding in place we should be able to run all the programs.”