Kenya Rugby Union’s Director of Rugby Paul Odera has moved to calm the qualms witnessed within the rugby fraternity in the past few days after the announcement that University sides playing in the Kenya Cup were required to register their new rugby players ahead of the new season.

Rugby enthusiasts were sceptical of the requirement to pay Ksh 1,000 per player, but Odera says the move is aimed at protecting the universities when their players choose to transfer to rival clubs.

“We are trying to help the universities because when you say, okay, now player X has been with us for four years and then we look at our records and you never registered them. So how do we help you as a university? So, you find that the universities are going to lose out on compensation.

“Which league grants the players who are not registered in this world? Yeah, this is to help the universities because for them to be able to be compensated when the players complete their studies and are moving. And it is part of the KRU regulations. There’s nothing new. It’s just not been done. I don’t know why it’s not been done in the past.”

Odera says the registration requirement is part of the KRU’s regulations that has not been implemented for a long time, but is now necessary owing to several transfer disputes involving university players.

“They’re investing in players and we want that when they’re investing in the players, when someone comes for those players, they need to get compensation for the investment they’ve done because suddenly universities are not getting any compensation and that’s and there’s no way so suddenly if a club says why should we compensate this university and yet this player is not registered, now how does the KRU help them?

“So, this should have been happening anyway, I don’t know why it’s not been happening but there are a number of things I find that have just been left in terms of the regulation.”

Institutions must register the new players before the start of the Kenya Cup, Championship and Nationwide season.