Kenya Sevens technical team recently named a 24-man squad for the 2019 Safari7s championship set to run between October 18 and October 20 at the RFUEA Grounds.
Some notable names in the squad include Stanbic Mwamba’s Collins Injera, Davis Nyaudi of Oilers, Joel Inzuga of Mwamba, Ian Mabwa of Nondies, Monate Akuei of Nakuru, Geoff Okwatch of KCB and Mike Okello of Mwamba.
This brings the nostalgic momory of Gibson Weru. The man who starred during his time as a player, and is still at the peak as a coach.
Gibson Weru is undoubtedly the greatest rugby player from Nakuru region, where there are only two major clubs; the Nakuru RFC and Menengai Oilers.
The 35-year old, got into the pitch at a tender age of 19 and made great impact for himself and his club Nakuru RFC. By the time he was transiting from being a player to being a coach, Gibson had clearly attained a legendary status, and none has never beaten him on that. He is the club’s greatest legend of all times.
He was born to father Francis Kahuthia (late) and mother Mary Kahuthia, and as the second-last child in a family of five from Njoro. But they’ve lived their entire life in Nakuru’s Kiti estate.
This is where his signals of becoming a rugby legend started-after trying out football and basketball in Primary school. He discovered his real talent (rugby) while studying at Nakuru Day Secondary school.
“I played rugby in school before I joined Nakuru RFC in 2002. But before this, I played football and basketball in primary school,” Gibson told Opera News.
While at Nakuru RFC, which is popularly referred to as Wanyore in rugby circles, he rose through the ranks to become the club’s captain, and to secure national and international slots.
After serving as a player for the Oginga Odinga Road-based side, for a period of 12 years in the fly-half position, he eventually caught the eyes of national team selectors and got included into the National Sevens Team in 2005 under Head Coach Gordon Anampiu.
This is owed on his discipline, team character and contribution to a team he helped secure the Kenya Cup League title for the first time in 2013, a year they also wrestled the Enterprise Cup. Nakuru RFC had last won the Enterprise Cup in 2008.
And because of the qualities in him, which includes high work-rate and teamwork, he once again led the team to retain the league title in 2014.
At the national team, he once deputized legendary captain Humphrey Kayange to put the team on the global map, working under coaches Anampiu(2005-2006) and longest serving Benjamin Ayimba(2006-2011).
As a player under Ayimba, the National Sevens Team – The Shujaa managed to register their ever victory against former world champions New Zealand in the HSBC World Sevens series in Hong Kong Sevens in 2009, a year they also reached the first ever finals (HSBC World Sevens) against South Africa in Adelaide, Australia, defeated South Africa in the Wellington Sevens in New Zealand and reached the first ever Rugby World Cup against Argentina in Dubai with the overall title won by Wales, all these achievements coming in the year 2009.
“It was a tough and very competitive year (2009) but we were equally ready for the task ahead of us and managed to consolidate ourselves to beat some of the world’s strongest rugby teams besides reaching respectable stages of global assignments but lost a match or two in the course of these assignments,” he said.
As much as he was readily available for the National Sevens Team duties between 2005 and 2013, he was equally available for Nakuru RFC’s local assignments whenever called upon by different coaches.
The coaches were Allan Omuyaku (2003-2004), Jotham Owili(2004-2012), the late Erick Situma(2012-2013) and Dominique Habimana(2014-2015) before he was poached to be the Head Coach upon formation of Menengai Oilers RFC at the end of 2015.
And since then, the new kid in Nakuru has risen under Gibson to become a household name. In April 2019, they won the 29th edition of Top Fry Great Rift 10-aside tournament at Nakuru Athletic Club-the same venue for this year’s Nakuru 7’s battle. Gibson has so far steered his side into some impressive show in this year’s Rugby Sevens Circuit with a single aim of making the team even better.
“I want Menengai Oilers to be the best club in East and Central Africa in the next three years,” he said.
Asked about the secrets of his successes as a player, Weru said self-discipline, rigorous training and fitness is the key to the ultimate answer of being a refined professional player.
“These are qualities any player must attain in order to be an accomplished professional in his career,” he said.
Other notable Nakuru RFC legends were Hams Onsando and Larry Okinyo(the 1980s), Enos Otieno, Edwin Shimenga, and Edwin Makori(in the 1990s) and Phillip Kwame(2000s) and of late – the current special kicker Geoffrey Ominde, Nelson Oyoo and Oscar Ouma.