Shujaa, Lionesses receive Covid-19 jabs

Kenya national men’s and women’s rugby teams, Shujaa and Lionesses respectively, today received their first covid-19 vaccine jabs at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. The administered vaccines come as part of a vaccine rollout initiative by the Ministry of Sports Culture and Heritage that intends to inoculate athletes in the country.

During the announcement of the initiative, rugby was one of the sports given priority due to Shujaa’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics as well as the under-20 Barthes Trophy that Kenya is set to host later on this year.

Speaking after the exercise was conducted at Kasarani, Kenya Rugby Union chairman Oduor Gangla appreciated the government’s efforts as he highlighted the important assignments that lie ahead in the rugby map.

“This is historic because all our national teams have been able to get their covid-19 vaccinations. It is going to be a very busy year, because we have the Olympics, the 15 aside qualifiers and the Barthes Cup. On behalf of KRU, all the players and the entire fraternity, I want to extend our very sincere thank you to the ministry for all the support they have given the rugby fraternity,” he said.

Shujaa head coach Innocent Simiyu, who recently led Shujaa to a fifth place finish at the Emirates Invitational Sevens in Dubai, on his part expressed his delight at the exercise as he called his team to reciprocate the efforts.

“We are very happy with the last performance of the players in the tournament that we played in Dubai. We would like to thank the government for facilitating that tour and also ensuring that we get vaccinated as we try to go back to normalcy in terms of sport. We are putting steps in the right direction and now the ball is in our court in terms of preparing for the Olympics,” he said.

Shujaa are set to take part in another invitational tournament that will take place in South Africa before shifting sights to the July 2021 Tokyo Olympics. National fifteens side Simba and under 20 side Chipu were all vaccinated last week.