On the 20th of November, the Kenyan rugby community came together to celebrate a true rugby legend - Andrew Amonde.  He has been the captain of the Kenya national sevens team since 2012, playing in 85 tournaments, 358 games and scoring 64 tries. He holds the all-time highest tackle count for Kenya at 369 hits. He led Kenya to their first 7s World Cup semifinal in 2013 losing narrowly to England. Not to be beaten twice he rallied to captain the team to its first ever 7s circuit series win in Singapore 2016. Since then he has continued to captain the 7s team leading them to great success and, most recently, captained the 7s Olympic Team and the country to Tokyo 2020, just before retiring. This was an evening to celebrate Andrew Amonde. The country’s captain. A national icon. A rugby legend. A true gentleman.

As DBA Rugby Academy Ambassador, we celebrated Andrew's stellar career.  The event took place at the Sankara hotel in Nairobi which had been beautifully prepared for the occasion with a walk of fame showing off the history and major highlights of Andrew's rugby career, an interactive section, gold clad drinks tables, a trophy centrepiece for all to admire and glittering marquee for a 3-course meal.  The event was sponsored by Safaricom who have partnered with DBA Africa so strengthen sport in Kenya during a difficult period of cancelled sports events and very limited sport for Kenyan youngsters.  Redbull Kenya also sponsored the event with products for which we are hugely grateful.  In addition, we would like to thank the Sankara hotel for helping to make the event such a success.

Andrew was honoured with video messages from his children, his parents, his wife and rugby legend, mentor and former coach Mike Friday and coaches and players Rob Vickerman, Harry McNulty and Will Webster.  Oscar Ouma and Brian Nyikuli delivered tributes to Andrew and the audience enjoyed watching some video highlights of Andrew's career. Our MC, Ng'arua Kamuya then held a Q&A with Andrew.  The evening ended with wonderful music and some fabulous dance moves!  The event was a huge success and has inspired cooperation across the rugby community to invest in youth sport and build on the huge talent pool that can be found in East Africa.