Shujaa's star Ombachi finds secure haven in carpentry and cooking

“As much as I hated it, we were always hands on and that’s where I saw her baking. Her kitchen is also where I was introduced to soy sauce in a not-so-delicious manner when I drank from the bottle, but she kept us all on our toes and now looking back, it was worth it.”

Apart from earning several caps with Kenya in the World Sevens Series, Ghost Worker, as he is popularly referred to, was also part of the Shujaa squad that played at the 2013 Rugby World Cup in Russia. 

Ombachi clearly recalls that evening on November 15, 2015, at the Barnard stadium in Johannesburg when he helped Kenya Sevens write history, becoming the third Kenyan team after the men’s hockey and women’s volleyball sides to qualify for the Olympic Games. 

With Shujaa trailing 17-14 against the Zimbabweans in the last minute of the contest that would decide Africa’s flag-bearer at the Summer Games in Brazil, Ombachi beat his markers for pace before crossing the whitewash for the match-winning try. 

“My most memorable moment has to be the Olympic qualifiers where we managed to score the winning try after the buzzer had gone. The more time flies the more I am starting to appreciate that day and how luck coupled with lots of preparations didn’t leave us that day,” he says. 

Now that spending a better part of the day indoors is the new reality for athletes, Ombachi has opted to use this time to try new recipes. 

His array of finger-licking and colourful delicacy easily whets everybody’s appetite. 

Ombachi’s creativity in the kitchen has been inspired by his travels across the world on rugby duty. 

“The cooking passion really intensified when I joined the national team and started travelling the world tasting different cuisines and foods.” 

The coronavirus crisis has also offered Ombachi an opportunity to practise carpentry, an art he learnt briefly during his days at Kisii High School before he opted to switch gears to Electrical Studies.

Former Kenya Sevens coach Benjamin Ayimba, who was in charge of the team during the 2016 Olympic qualifiers, labels Ombachi as a hard worker. 

“His resilience gave me a reason to try him and when I gave him the opportunity to play, he showed how much of a hard worker he was. He was a very instrumental part of the Sevens system,” says Ayimba, who guided Kenya to the 2016 Singapore Sevens title.