Agunda replaces Murunga at Harlequins helm
He says working together with the management, technical bench and playing unit, he knows they will go places
Former Kenyan international Simbas star Patrice Agunda has been named as the new Kenya Cup side Kenya Harlequins RFC Head Coach following the recent departure of Paul Murunga.
Agunda takes over immediately ahead of the 2025 National 7s Circuit and 2025/2026 Kenya Cup season. The club legend is a respected leader in the Quins locker room and is expected to bring a breadth of fresh air in the technical department. In the past four years, Agunda has worked in several roles on the Kenya Harlequins technical bench as a skills coach,7s Coach (part of 2024 National 7s Circuit championship winning team),Assistant coach and mostly recently as the Head Coach for the Kenya Harlequin Women’s team where he led the team to the semi-finals in their first season. In 2024, Agunda participated in a high level coaching exchange programme with the Japanese National Rugby Team.
Reacting to his appointment, the 36-year-old said: “I am indeed deeply honored to take up this role. We have great potential and I am ready to build on our legacy. There is huge work ahead and this is indeed a big task, however I am up to the challenge. Working together with the management, technical bench and playing unit, I know we will go places.”
Agunda, who was inducted into the Kenya Harlequin FC Roll of Honour in 2014, played for the club for 15 seasons, 5 of those as captain. Before his coaching career, the former centre and hooker had a stellar career on the domestic and international stage. He has won three Kenya Cup titles with Harlequins inn 2008/2010/2012..He also won the Enterprise Cup in 2009 and the National 7s Circuit in 2012.
He has played for Kenya at all representative levels, including U20s or Chipu (vice-captain) & U19s (vice-captain). With Kenya Simbas, he won several Victoria Cups and Elgon Cups. He was Vice-captain of the Elgon Warriors (East Africa Regional Team) in the series against English Counties in 2021. He played 5 seasons for Kenya Shujaa including in the World Rugby Sevens Series 2011-2015,reaching the semi-final of the 2013 Rugby 7s World Cup,2014 Commonwealth Games. He won several trophies with Shujaa including the Safari 7s, Africa Cup 7sAmsterdarm 7s and Abuja 7s.
On his part, Harlequins RFC Chairman Victor Sudi stated; “We as Kenya Harlequins have a reputation and long tradition of developing high level, professional rugby coaches for club and country. Four years ago, we embarked on a focused strategy to conscientiously prepare our next generation coaches. We are delighted that Patrice takes over as our new Head Coach and wish him and his team the very best.”
