Kenya Airways has officially terminated its sponsorship to the Kenya Sevens rugby team after seven years.
The airline’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mbuvi Ngunze said the airline, that has been Shujaa’s title sponsor since 2010 spending over Sh900 million in cash and in kind, has evaluated their current business strategy and opted not to renew the sponsorship.
Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) Chairman Richard Omwela said they had hoped Kenya Airways would match the Sh600m sponsorship given by Sportpesa for Kenya rugby.
“We had told Kenya Airways to take the back of the shirts with a considerable package but they opted out,” said Omwela.
In Sportpesa’s five-year deal, Sh120m will be used annually for the national teams. Kenya Sevens takes a huge chunk of Sh60m with the other half going to Kenya 15s, Kenya Under-19 and Kenya Women’s teams.
Kenya 7s had no choice here, as a team participating in the World 7s series. As part of the participation terms and conditions, the winner of each leg in the 2015/2016 series was required to travel back home, for free of course, on a chartered Qatar Airways flight. Qatar airways paid IRB for that.
