As he leads the Kenya Sevens rugby team out of the tunnel, Vincent Onyala feels like he is stepping into a war zone.

And there is no draw in a war.

“Either you come out as a victor or a loser,” says Vincent.

Vincent is a co-captain of the team, popularly known as Shujaa, that is now in Paris preparing for the Olympics.

Shujaa qualified for the Olympics by beating South Africa at the Africa Sevens in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 2023.

The win was a surprise as the team was new and made up of young and inexperienced players such as Patrick Odongo, the other co-captain.

“We had not given this team a chance to qualify for Paris. Actually, it shocked people,” says Ayumba Ayodi, a journalist at Nation Media Group who has covered sports since 2003.

Patrick remembers being afraid of South Africa, whose 15s team are world champions and for whom winning is almost always a given.

“We were three starting players who had never played anywhere. The senior players were there encouraging us and telling us, ‘These people are beatable. No one is unbeatable”, says Patrick.

Beating South Africa was a relief as it gave Kenya a direct ticket to the Olympics, and the team was spared a circuitous qualification process.

Shujaa could also now concentrate on fighting its way back to the World Series, where it had enjoyed a run of almost 20 years playing with the big teams in the world.

That effort succeeded, and the team is now fully focused on the Olympics.

The man leading the effort is Kevin Wambua, who is more popularly known as Bling.

From his experience, Ayumba is confident that Kenya has the right person in charge.

“He knows Sevens. He understands Sevens well, and for me, he’s the right guy now, especially handling a young team like that one. We need to give him time,” says Ayumba.

Michelle Katami, a journalist who has covered rugby for a long time, describes Bling as “a brilliant rugby coach with a brilliant rugby mind.”

At the Olympics, Kenya Sevens is in Pool B alongside Argentina, Australia, and Samoa. Shujaa will kick off their campaign with a tough encounter against Argentina on Wednesday, July 24.

For Bling, the target is to win all their poll matches and do better than last time.

“It’s all about our continual improvement. 2016 Olympics, we won one game; 2020 Olympics, we won two games. So, for us, we just want to try and better that. Our overall objective is to get out of the Pool, get to a quarters, and get to a semis. And once we get there, we just have to dare to dream,” says Bling.