the Kevin o'Byrne legacy

Kevin O'Byrne was outstanding on the sports field, having been captain of rugby, soccer and tennis when he was in university. The same enthusiasm was directed into Kenyan sports and the moment he landed here, Harlequins Rugby Football Club took him on as a scrum- half after hearing news of his exploits in the Irish league. He virtually introduced the sport to black Kenyans who had never played the game before but got a chance after he exposed them to the Nairobi club scene. Steve Robi who played club rugby in the league explained, "Just before I finished high school back in 1967, he would take me, Ishmael Ramadhan, Lewis Maina and Hakeem Folami to the rugby clubs for exposure. Soon we started playing for Harlequins RFC and ended up being the first black Kenyans to do so.Another former student Leslie Mwachiro, who plied his trade for Impala RFC explained Kevin's efforts to erase the prejudice in the game, "In 1974 he was instrumental in the formation of Miro RFC which was the first all black rugby team in the league. It later evolved into Mean Machine of Nairobi University and Blak Blad of Kenyatta University as the members were also university students. These grew into Mwamba after we graduated"