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{
    "id": 818090,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/818090/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 204,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Vihiga, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ernest Kivai",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13502,
        "legal_name": "Ernest Ogesi Kivai",
        "slug": "ernest-ogesi-kivai-2"
    },
    "content": "Being an alumnus of Nairobi School, I used to play the game at school but when I went home, nobody knew what this game was all about. We must thank the gentlemen who took over the leadership of this sport. I have in mind people like Mwangi Muthee. When he took over the leadership of the Kenya Rugby Football Union (KRFU) he embarked on a programme to introduce the game in the country. After Mwangi Muthee, there came another gentleman who is still the chairman right now called Richard Omwela and he also continued to introduce this sport in the country. Unfortunately, they intended to concentrate on the western part of the country and so in a very short time we had schools such as Kakamega High School, Maseno School and Vihiga School coming out to excel in this game. We urge the union to continue with the programme. If you look at the current composition of the Kenya Rugby Football Team, you will find that almost 80 per cent of the people who form that team come from the western part of the country. This is not by accident. This is because when they were spreading the game, they tended to concentrate on the schools in western Kenya. We urge the union to take up this opportunity. We want to hear people from Nyeri, Tana River, Coast and so forth playing this game. I have heard my colleagues say that we are doing very well in rugby. No. There are two forms of rugby. There is the seven-a-side rugby, where you have only seven players playing but the main sport is the fifteen-aside rugby. That was the original sport of rugby. Madam Speaker, we are not doing very well in the fifteen-aside. I urge the union to spare a lot of thought for the fifteen-aside rugby because we are seen to have concentrated on the seven-a-side rugby and forgotten the fifteen-aside rugby. After all, the original form of rugby was the fifteen-aside rugby. As I support this Motion by our colleague, Hon. Keter, I wish it went slightly further. Apart from just talking about the physical facilities, we should also be talking about the motivational aspects of this game. The other day, I cannot remember whether it was in Singapore or somewhere else our players refused to wear the logo of the sponsor. Why did they do that? It is because they were not paid their allowances. That was a form of protest. We should urge all the people, right from the ministry all the way to the rugby football union, to ensure that when we take our boys out, all their allowances are paid so that we do not have a situation that could put our country to shame. I support the Motion but if I had a chance to amend it, I would have brought in the motivational aspects other than the physical stadium. However, let us start with the physical facilities and then we can move on to the other aspects. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}