Ireland tour diary: Pitstop in Kenya en route to land of the Springboks
Collin Injera and his brother Humphrey Kayange.
WHEN THEY TELL you for the third time that you’re definitively not getting on the flight, you start to believe them.
Long story short: British Airways overbooked the plane from Heathrow to Johannesburg on Saturday and 16 of us were unlucky to randomly get the squeeze. Not only did this mean an overnight stay in London but also a new route to South Africa.
So this diary comes to you from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya amid a dash to make this 30-minute turnaround for the connecting flight to Johannesburg.
While coming through Kenya wasn’t part of the plan, it’s a pity not to see some of it or that the timing wasn’t better. There have been riots in Nairobi this week as locals expressed their anger about 20 people reportedly being killed during earlier protests against tax increases. The parliament was stormed and partially set alight in those protests, leading to military being deployed and roads being blocked.
Many of Andy Farrell’s Ireland players used their down day in South Africa on Sunday to head on safari, which Kenya offers too. Just across the road from the airport is Nairobi National Park, only seven kilometres south of the city. Its lions, cheetahs, crocodiles, leopards, rhinos, wildebeest, hippos, and jackals are kept safe from humans, and vice versa, by fencing on three sides of the park, the southern side opening onto the Kitengela plains.
When word of this reroute to Kenya was plastered on social media, several highly-appreciated messages soon landed in the email inbox, including a particularly helpful one from Cormac McGovern.
His uncle, Fr Sean McGovern, has been in Kenya since 1966 so Cormac and his family try to visit every year. Sean now lives at an extremely remote mission in Rotu, East Pokot up in the mountains in the north. There are no roads and it’s not even on official maps. It is the epitome of inaccessible.
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Funnily enough, Rotu is at the a similar altitude to Loftus Versfeld and Sean felt Leinster might struggle in their URC semi-final there against the Bulls. Having studied at Blackrock College, he’s a rugby man, as well as a big St Pat’s fan. He’s hoping Ireland fare better in Pretoria.
The Pokot people have faced challenges like famine and infant mortality, as well as local tribal warfare. Sean is one of the few Irish priests left in Kenya.
Speaking of a school famous for producing some of Ireland’s best rugby players, had we arrived in Nairobi a few days ago, the annual Blackrock Rugby Festival at St Mary’s College would have been an obvious draw. Yes, it’s named after the Dublin school.
St Mary’s was founded in 1939 by Holy Ghost Fathers from Blackrock in Dublin. Mimicking their sister school, St Mary’s wear blue and white jerseys and the school logos are almost identical. Blackrock’s Fides et Robur motto [Faith and Strength] is replaced with Bonitas, Disciplina, Scienta [Goodness, Discipline, Knowledge] on the St Mary’s crest.
Like other similar institutions, the Nairobi school only opened its doors to African students when Kenya gained independence from Britain in the 1960s. Since then, they’ve produced lots of fine rugby players and their past pupils also include Uhuru Kenyatta, the fourth president of Kenya and son of the aforementioned Jomo, the first president and a key figure in becoming independent.
The Blackrock Festival is a big deal, all the top schools in Kenya competing as scouts watch for the next possible 7s or 15s stars. On Saturday, the Rift Valley Academy won the 2024 tournament, beating Dawamu in the decider. St Mary’s haven’t won on home soil since 2011.
Kenyan rugby is perhaps best known for its impact in the 7s game. Their men’s team – known as the Shujaa, meaning ‘courage’ in Swahili – were a staple on the World 7s Series until getting relegated last season. Happily, they’ll be back next season after earning promotion, while they’ll play at a third successive Olympics later this month.
Collins Injera is a hero in Kenya for his exploits in 7s. He retired last year third on the all-time try-scoring list and in the top 10 for caps on the World Series.
Meanwhile, the men’s 15s team –the Simbas, meaning ‘Lions’ – have been steadily improving. Rugby was introduced to Kenya by the colonisers and was a pursuit of the white for a long time, independence resulting in the barriers slowly being broken down.
1972 was a big year in that regard as a man named Ted Kanetu became the first indigenous black Kenyan to play for the East Africa Tuskers, an invitational side who toured Ireland that same year, playing against the likes of Cork Con, Galwegians, Garryowen, Sligo and, of course, Blackrock College RFC. There’s actually a plaque from that tour in Sligo’s grounds at Hamilton Park.
Coincidentally, the Kenya Airlines flight to Nairobi carried cans of Tuskers, self-proclaimed to be the finest Kenyan lager. It hit the spot.
It took until the 2000s for Kenya to start getting respectable results on the African scene and by 2011 they claimed the African Cup, doing it again in 2013 and making four finals in the years since.
In 2022, Kenya were one win away from qualifying for the 2023 World Cup but were hammered by heavy favourites Nambia in the Africa Cup final. The Simbas then went into World Rugby’s Final Qualifying tournament but were well beaten by the US and Portugal before going close against Hong Kong.
The Kenya U20s are part of the World Rugby U20 Trophy, the second-tier tournament which kicks off on Tuesday. They hosted it in Nairobi last year and back in 2009 when they finished a best-ever fourth overall.
The national 15s women’s team were in WXV 3 with Ireland last year, losing to Spain and Kazakhstan but beating Colombia. The women are ranked 23rd in the world, while the men are 34th. Here’s to their continued rise in the coming years and here’s hoping for a proper visit to Kenya in the future.
Anyway, it looks like we’ve made the connecting flight without a moment to spare, so bring on South Africa.