When Kenya’s rugby history is written, the name Benjamin Ayimba will be at the centre of it. A former national team player and coach, Ayimba, who succumbed to cerebral malaria on Friday, May 21, will be remembered for his contribution to Kenya’s rugby.
Arguably the most successful rugby coach in Kenya, 2016 will go down in history as his career highlight when he led Shujaa to their maiden Olympics Games in Rio as well as to their only final victory so far at the World Sevens Rugby series.
Ayimba had just made a comeback to the team in 2015, having been fired in 2011 after opposing the fielding of Shujaa main players at the Safari Sevens. He took over from Felix Ochieng, inheriting a squad that had spent the better part of the 2015 series fighting relegation battles and turning it around.
He was a true servant of the game! Bom and raised in Nairobi, his peers at Olympic Primary School say he was a generally athletic person who participated in all things sports from a young age.
His journey in rugby began in Form Three at Maseno School where, under coach Milton Nyangaga, he honed his skills in a game that would see him lead an accolade- laden career until his demise at the age of 44.
After high school, Ayimba joined Impala RFC as a rookie in 1995 and went on to feature for the side for seven years. His last three years at the Ngong Road-based club were the most successful as he captained the side to two Kenya Cup and Enterprise Cup doubles in 2000 and 2001.
He was also instrumental in the team lifting the national sevens circuit title three years in a row from 1999 to 2001.
He ditched Impala for Nondies RFC in 2002 where he went on to spend a season before landing a pro deal to play for Cornish Pirates in England between 2003 and 2005 alongside his close friend Oscar Osir.

Benjamin Ayimba relaxes during the national rugby sevens team training session at Brookhouse School Nairobi.
PD/FILE
“The pro deal came through Dicky Evans who played for Nondies in the formative years and was at the time sponsoring the Kenyan side through his Flamingo Holdings company, a company that owns Hemingways Hotels. Through him, Ayimba landed a deal to play for Cornish Pirates, a club Evans serves as the life president in the English Rugby Union.
“We had played together X at Impala but he had left to join Nondies.
“He, however, convinced Evans to extend the sponsorship deal to me despite being at a rival club and that is how we ended up playing for Pirates for two and a half years,” said Osir.
The two had loan spells with Redruth RFC, a National league side, while still attached to Cornish Pirates. They would operate between Kenya and England, as they still had national team duties in between then two and a half year’s stay in England.