Like many other rugby clubs in the world, the University of Nairobi rugby team, commonly known as the Mean Machine or Eschuma has a rich history.
Although the team has featured in the Kenyan league for decades, its nickname is alien to most people.
TeamKenya.co.ke takes a look at how the successful varsity side got its byname, Mean Machine.
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The Mean Machine name was born after players decided to borrow half of the Lenana School rugby team nickname and the Nairobi School sobriquet.
In the 1980s, the Lenana School rugby team was known as the Mean Maroon while their arch-rivals Nairobi School went by the name Patch Machine.
When players from the two high schools met at the University of Nairobi, they unanimously decided to name the institution’s rugby team Mean Machine to prevent a fallout since both camps wanted the name of their former post-primary learning institution to be used.
Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary (CS), was among the players who played for Mean Machine in the 1980s.
He started playing rugby while a student at Nairobi High School, and went on to become a star player for the Mean Machine.
Mudavadi, who used to play as a winger, recently revealed that playing rugby helped him learn to control his anger.
‘‘Rugby is a rough sport because you have to tackle someone hard, or someone will give you a bodycheck, and so we were trained and conditioned for it because it is extremely physical.
"Once you’re on the pitch you have to bring it out and be rough because the game asks for it, but once you’re off the pitch you don’t engage in any physical confrontation," the Prime CS was quoted by Debunk Media in 2022.
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