Kenya rugby queen Janet Okello move to Japanese side Pearls dream come true

When British writer Clive Staples Lewis said “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream,” he did not have Kenya Lionesses star Janet ‘Shebesh’ Okello in mind.

Despite thinking she has reached her peak, Okello has finally achieved one of her dreams — to play professional rugby outside Kenya.

“I feel so proud because that’s my dream come true. I have achieved my ultimate goal, almost all my goals in rugby, and that makes me a happy athlete,” she said.

Aged 29, Okello has completed a move to Japanese side MIE Pearls Women’s Rugby Football Club.

.

Keep Reading

•  vivo ushers in a new era of portrait photography with the slim and premium-designed V30
•  Kuppet, TSC agree on promotion of 30,000 teachers
•  vivo V30 5G launching in Kenya: Step into the future with style
•  Inside Ruto's Sh16 trillion last-ditch plan to save Vision 2030Premium
•  We have hit some good Vision 2030 milestones but missed key targetsPremium

The experienced winger got the news after scoring two tries as her Mwamba side edged out Impala Roans 15-11 to be crowned the inaugural Women’s Kenya Cup champions at the Impala Club last Saturday.

“As a captain I feel motivated winning my first Kenya Cup and I thank the girls; they worked hard for the win. The girls have really worked for it. They really wanted it the most.

“What I can say is the season was smooth and easy with the girls’ cooperation,” Okello said on winning the Kenya Cup.

She becomes the first Kenyan woman to play professional rugby in Japan, and the second member of the Lionesses to venture abroad in recent months.

This is following immediate former Lionesses skipper, Philadelphia Olando, who landed a role as head coach of the United Arab Emirates national women’s rugby team.

Popularly known as “Shebesh”, she has been part of the Lionesses squads that represented Kenya at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics as well as the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The winger joins Yokkaichi City-based side on a year-long contract.  

Okello, who is poised to take over the national team captaincy duties from Olando, told the Standard Sports she can’t wait to get to Japan come April 3.

Okello said her journey to Japan started after the Tokyo Olympics.

“It started in Japan just immediately after our games in the Olympics when a player agent approached me and told me that she watched all my games and she was interested in connecting me to play professional rugby because I have the qualities.

“And after that she managed to secure me a club in Japan,” she said.

Okello’s rugby career was something not on the radar until 2010 when she was at Butere Girls High School that the games teacher encouraged her to play rugby. She originally had aspirations in athletics.

Born and raised in Nakuru, she said while growing up, her dream was to become a sprinter.

“During my childhood days at Mama Ngina Primary School, I used to take part in 100m and 200m sprints where I would beat my competitors,” said Okello, the first born in a family of six.

Her venture into rugby did not begin until she joined Butere Girls High School in 2009.

She pays glowing tribute to the late Lioness captain Aberdeen Shikoyi for helping and encouraging her to take rugby seriously.

“In 2011, I was privileged to participate in the Safaricom Sevens High Schools tournament where I met the late Shikoyi (the then Kenya lioness captain) who advised the national team selectors call me up upon completing Form Four,” she said.

True to Shikoyi’s words, Okello joined the national team straight from school, making her senior debut with the Kenya Lioness at the Dubai Sevens in December 2013.

She went on to sign up for KCB the same year where she went on to be the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) 10-aside top try scorer and top point scorer for 7s and 10s women league from 2013 to 2016.

Okello helped Kenya qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, an achievement she says she treasures.

In 2017, she signed up for Mwamba RFC where she finished as the top try scorer in the KRU’s 10’s and 7’s last year.

As the Kenya Lionesses sailed through to the 2018 Commonwealth Games to Gold Coast, Australia, Janet Okello played the role of the ‘backbone of the team’, while shy but composed at the Robina Stadium.

During the qualifiers, Okello scored a hat-trick against Senegal in the second match and bagged two in the win over Tunisia.