Ugandan rugby team chips away at Kenya’s dominance

Kenya must go for an outright win. Should they lose, then it has to be by seven points or less. A draw would also work in their favour.

Results over the past two years indicate that neither team has found it easy in the opponent’s home turf.

Uganda has been consistently beaten by the Kenya team in Nairobi and vice versa. However, this year unlike in the past two years, Ugandans have narrowed the gap down to an eight point difference compared to defeats where they suffered by 20 points.

To an extent, this signifies the strides our neighbours to the west have made in the longer version of rugby while Kenya has excelled in the shorter seven a side game.

When the two countries clash, in the match slated for the last week of August in Kampala, it will be a test to prove whether Ugandans have come of age.

For the Kenyan side, it will be a chance to prove to the doomsayers that the 15 a side game is truly alive. That is if they eventually win.

But beneath the clash over the oval ball is a subtle battle between the two nations that has been slowly emerging. History has it that Kenya has always been the dominant nation is all aspects be it politically, economically and of course in rugby.

Politically the Ugandan’s had their own tribulations where their economy suffered under the tyrannical rule of dictator Idd Amin.

Kenyans watched and said such a thing would never happen to them, until the post-election violence early last year.

The harsh reality
That seemed to awake Kenyans to the harsh reality of the political instability faced by our neighbours for decades. The violence not only hurt the local economy but also Uganda’s, which is Kenya’s largest export market.

Now, the discovery of oil in Uganda seems to have put the shoe on the other foot. If well managed, analysts say, the black gold might mark the turning point of the once docile state into the true Pearl of Africa.

And renowned business leader Manu Chandaria at a recent talk in Nairobi mentioned the possibility of the Ugandans creeping on Kenya economically and eventually by passing us.

But while that might be the case, nobody knows exactly when the Ugandan economic boom will come if at all.

One certainty, however, is the fact that the Ugandan rugby team has slowly and steadily narrowed the yawning gap.

This has been built on the help from the South Africans and some Kenyans who have helped develop the game.

It is not only in the game that the Kenyans have chipped in to aid the rise of the Ugandans, but also economically where a number of local firms have crossed the border to set up base.

Though it remains to be seen if they will choke on the last biting with just an eight point difference to claim the Elgon Cup for the first time in three years.

For Kenyans, the reality will definitely sink in both on the rugby pitch and the economic front of a slumbering neighbour slowly starting to awake.

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