Originally published in the East African , October 3-9, 2011.
On April , 1974, a brief inviting all African rugby players to meet for the formation of an African rugby team appeared in the sports pages of the Nation newspaper. Thirty one players turned up.
Later, a headline in the same paper later read. “All Blacks Rugby Team Formed.”
The team would operate as an invitational rugby side, and the players would remain affiliated to their clubs.
The men behind the idea as reported were Bill Okwirry, George Kariuki, and Joe Achungu.
Miro’s first big game was played against Roma Al Gida, a first division Italian club side, in 1976.
Roma Al Gida played several representative teams while on tour in Kenya, including Scorpions – whom they beat 16-13 – and East Africa XV.
Miro, playing their open rugby brand, beat Roma Al Gida 20-12, scoring three tries through Matsalia, Ben Mukuria and Tom Oketch. All Roma’s points came from 4 penalties. Miro had proved they could win.
An article in the dailies the following day read,” Miro, an all African rugby team, scored a great victory over the touring Italian side, Roma Algida. Miro played excellent open rugby and fully merited their win.”
Roma went on to draw 9-9 with East Africa.
Miro was not without controversy. Questions were raised about the selection of the team, with some members saying only Africans should be named. Other members, not wanting to appear reverse racist, wanted a few ‘supportive’ Europeans on the side.
The administrators of the game, the Kenya Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football Union of East Africa had done plenty to ensure a transition of the game from European to African, setting up competitions to increase the player base. On the representative scene players like Ted Kabetu, Chris Onsotti and John Muhato were playing for the representative sides. The game had opened up to Africans, and now they wanted full representation at the highest level.
In May 1979 Blackheath RFC a major London club side, toured Kenya for the second time since 1966.
The Scorpions, an invitational side, put up a commendable fight, drawing 17-17 with Blackheath.
Miro raised the bar. ‘Miro Sink Blackheath’, Frank Ojiambo’s article read the day after the match, “The All-African invitation rugby side, Miro R.F.C swamped the fancied British club side, Blackheath, 32-19 yesterday, in perhaps the most exciting rugby friendly to be played in Kenya.”
Richard Njoba, Miro secretary remembers the game with nostalgia, “It was one of the most exciting games played in the country, 80 minutes running rugby. I remember a couple of occasions when the ball was run from behind our posts, against an English first division team. Tries were scored, and we won. And that was the last time there was a question about Africans being selected to play international sides.”
Despite all the politics, Miro had proved its caliber again.
Later that July, the East African ‘Tuskers’ left Nairobi for a 4 game tour of Zambia. Of the 23 man squad, 19 were African. The Tuskers lost 3 games and won the most important: against the Zambia National side.
Beth Omolo remembers the game against Zambia. “That was the first time we had heard the Kenyan national anthem played.” The Tuskers won 21-13. It was the first time the Zambians had lost to a team from East Africa since 1954.
On July 5, 1980, a Kenyan XV, based on selection of Kenyan citizens, played against Zambia in Nairobi. The Zambians had travelled to try and avenge the 1979 defeat by the Tuskers. Kenya won the match 23-10.
Three weeks after Kenya beat Zambia as a national team, Miro was slotted to play a game against the visiting London Metropolitan Police side from the UK.
Earlier that year, the British Lions toured South Africa, and yet Britain was a signatory to the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement in which Commonwealth governments agreed to discourage sporting contacts with South Africa.
Mean Machine and Mwamba boycotted the tour to protest against Britain’s sporting links with apartheid South Africa.
Miro raised a side to play Metropolitan Police, but suffered a 40-9 defeat. Reports in the Daily Nation the next day called the Miro side ‘makeshift’. Several Mwamba and Mean Machine players did not show up.
Godfrey ‘Chief’ Edebe, the Miro chairman who played in the 1979 Miro vs. Blackheath game, had a different view of the situation,” Our brief (as Miro) was to get a game against touring sides, and we got a game against Met Police. How else could you judge the ability of Miro, to see how far we had come up? We have had a lot of politics in rugby.”
Miro faded away; its sunset clouded by politics, eclipsed by a new dawn of Kenyan representative rugby. Its objective had been achieved.