Kenya women Rugby team The Lionesses will miss this year’s IRB world rugby series set for this weekend in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) chairman Richard Omwela said the board could not raise funds to send the team to Dubai for season opener.
“We are sorry but the women’s team is not well catered for in the sponsorship kitty they signed with a betting company (Sportpesa) under two years ago,” said Omwela.
He clarified that the sponsorship deal worth Sh 607 million mainly caters for the men national sevens team.
“I can confirm that we are not able to support the national sevens women team to Dubai owing to lack of funds,” charged Omwela
Kenya had received an invitation to play at the Dubai Sevens and was the lowest ranked team against the likes of New Zealand, England, South Africa and Fiji.
The team could have used the tourney as a platform of preparing for the Commonwealth Games.
At the same time, the rugby boss has said that they’re exploring the possibility of sponsoring the team to a tour of Hong Kong for a series of test matches should they mobilize required funds
“We are looking forward to taking them to Hong Kong once we mobilize the necessary finances for them to able to participate,” he said.
Citizentv