As the 36th edition of the Driftwood 7s gets underway this weekend at the Mombasa Sports Club, one of the tournament’s earliest stories continues to capture the spirit of the competition.
It is a story of Mwamba RFC, a one-way bus ticket and a team that had no option but to win. In 1989, Mwamba RFC travelled to Mombasa for the inaugural Driftwood 7s under the leadership of captain Manuel Okoth, one of the hard men of Kenyan rugby at the time.
The team had secured transport to the Coast, but there was one glaring problem, they had no money for the journey back to Nairobi. Their solution was as straightforward as it was risky. They had to win the tournament.
Victory would guarantee them the prize money and accommodation they needed to make the return journey possible.
For Okoth and his teammates, the stakes therefore went beyond the rugby pitch. Every match carried the weight of knowing that failure could leave the team stranded in Mombasa.
Mwamba responded in typical fashion.
They battled through the competition and eventually met Impala RFC in finals and kulabu went on to lift the inaugural Driftwood 7s title.
But even after securing victory, the drama was not over.
The tournament prize was issued in the form of a cheque or voucher rather than immediate cash. For a team that needed accommodation and return transport, that presented another challenge.
Okoth, who had led the side throughout the tournament, had to make one final intervention.
He approached the organisers and explained the team’s predicament. Mwamba had won the tournament, but what they needed was the means to get home.
The organisers eventually agreed to convert the prize into cash, allowing the players to secure accommodation and their return fare. For Mwamba, the triumph became much more than a tournament victory.
It was a story of resilience, responsibility and a group of players who travelled to Mombasa with little margin for error and returned home as champions. More than three decades later, the story remains woven into the history of Driftwood 7s.
This weekend, as teams converge on Mombasa for the 36th edition, Mwamba will once again be among the sides chasing glory of winning the Driftwood 7s after they did it last time in 2022.
And for the club, the memories of 1989 offer a powerful reminder of what has always been possible when the black-and-white jersey is backed by determination.
Manuel Okoth will revisit that remarkable journey in an upcoming video interview with Two5Four.
English