All roads literary led to Machakos County, popularly known as Masaku, on Saturday for the annual Masaku 7s rugby tournament.

Now in its third edition, Masaku 7s has gained a massive popularity in the country’s social circles and it was not surprising that fans travelled from as far as Mombasa and Nakuru counties just to make it to the event.

As expected, Masaku was the ultimate weekend ‘plot’ for Nairobians only that no one expected that hypothetically, almost half of Nairobi would be making their way to the County.

MACHAKOS COUNTY HAS BECOME AN ATTRACTION

Machakos has now become a favourite attraction thanks to the Governor Alfred Mutua’s developments in the region that have left tongues wagging in admiration.

HUGE TURNOUT SATURATES ROADS TO MASAKU

Well, the aftermath of the huge turnout of fanatics making their way to Masaku would be a massive traffic snarl up that started all the way in Nairobi’s Mombasa road. Most people including this Kenya forum’s correspondent mistook it for the usual Mombasa road traffic and were certain that the highway would open up past the City Cabanas junction. But this was not to be, as things would only get thicker by the time the entourage was getting to Kitengela.

Those who couldn’t bear the traffic decided to stop at Kitengela on the road side and kick off the party from there as they waited for the traffic to ease but after almost an hour of waiting with no success, dozens of motorists had no option but to join in the queue.

Eventually, after spending up to four hours on the road in a journey that would on a normal day take 45 minutes, there were hopes of getting to the Kenyatta stadium, which is located in the heart of Machakos town, where the action was taking place but the traffic would not make it easier. Fans had no choice but to park their cars on the roadside, 1km from the venue and start their own party there as they wait for the next day.

NAIROBIANS TURN TO HAWKERS

Come Sunday, Masaku town was a beehive, finding parking was quite a task as finding a spot in Nairobi’s CBD on a weekday and even more interesting is the business acumen that had taken over Nairobians.

Almost half of the cars parked within the town were hawking merchandise mostly beer as most of the clubs had ran out of beer by the previous night.

The traffic menace aside, the event was fun as usual and every working person who attended was heard wishing for Monday to be declared a holiday.

Below are some of the reactions of Nairobians who went for Masaku 7s as shared with our correspondent on Facebook;

Charlene Phyl Njeri: after being stuck in traffic for hours, we finanly made it to the venue when Radio N Weasel were performing after trekking for 5kms. lol, it was fun though.

Gaston Wabomba: My friend and I never gave up. We struggled through traffic by overlapping and finally made it to the grounds at 6:35am yet we had started our journey at midnight.

Justus Musyoki: I travelled all the way from Mombasa to Masaku but what killed me most was the jam.

Quite interesting, Masaku7s is originally a rugby tournament but only a fraction of the hundreds of revelers who turn out to the event are interested in the games. It’s almost certain that three quarter of those who attended don’t even know which teams were playing or who even won the tournament.

Well, just for the record, Friday 27th June was for the schools rugby tournament while
Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th was the main two days of exciting World class rugby where both local and international teams battled it out for the cup.

Kenya’s Harlequins failed to defend their title and were beaten by Fiji’s Tabadamu.

This was the final score ‪#‎Masaku7s

Shield: Kilunda

Bowl: Jombi27

Plate: KCB Rugby

Playoffs: Kenya Harlequins

Cup: Tabadamu (Fiji)