Nairobi News

The national football team Harambee Stars has been invited to  participate in a two-day tournament in Kigali between June 5-6.

The Rwanda Memorial tournament, organised by the country’s football governing body Ferwafa, is meant to honour the country’s footballers, coaches, football administrators as well as thousands of people who perished in the 1994 genocide that left close to a million people dead.

In a phone interview with Daily Nation Sport from Kigali, Ferwafa’s Media and Communications Officer, Bonnie Mugabe, said: “This is going to be the first edition. We want to make the event international.”

Apart from Kenya, Ugandan Cranes, Burundi, Gabon as well as Algeria’s Desert Foxes will participate.

Though not a competitive tournament, it will give Harambee Stars head coach Bobby Williamson an opportunity to continue with his programme of building a youthful squad for the future.

POOR RUN

Kenya has had a poor run since the Scot took over the reins, the most recent being bundled out of the 2016 Olympics race after the Under-23 side fell to Botswana’s Zebras 4-4 aggregate.

Stars were undone by the away goal rule having thrashed the Zebras 4-1 at home, at the Nyayo National Stadium last weekend, but it could do little to atone for the 3-0 first league demolition in the first leg.

Mugabe added that the tournament will be preceded by a night’s vigil on June 5 in Kigali, to be attended by international dignitaries.

The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidal mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutus.

During the ethnic bloodletting, lasting approximately 100 days from April 7, 1994, to mid-July, an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Rwandans were killed.