Safari Sevens
Current season, competition or edition: 2016 Safari Sevens
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Safari Sevens
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| Sport | Rugby Sevens |
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| Founded | 1996 |
| Inaugural season | 1996 |
| Motto | Africa's premier rugby sevens tournament |
| Country | Kenya |
| Venue(s) | Moi International Sports Centre, Nairobi, Kenya |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 Kenya
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| Most titles |
Kenya (9) |
| Qualification | By application and invitation. |
| Official website | http://safarisevens.com/ |
The Safari Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Nairobi, Kenya. The Safari Sevens is open to international representative sides, professional and amateur clubs, invitational teams, university and school teams.
Initially held at the RFUEA Ground, home of the Kenya Rugby Union, the tournament has since moved to the Nyayo National Stadium and since 2013 to the 60,000 seat Moi International Sports Centre to allow for increased number of spectators.
Since the earliest days, rugby in Kenya had relied on a regular influx of foreign touring sides in order to test the mettle of the local teams and to provide opposition for the representative sides such as the Scorpions RFC and East Africa. The coming of professionalism to rugby in the 1990s all but dried up these tours and it was decided that a means had to be found of re-initiating the influx if the quality of rugby in the country was not to stagnate.
The Rugby Patrons Society decided to put in place a seven-a-side tournament and invite a number of foreign national and club teams to participate. Robin Cahill (a founder member of the society and the man whose brainchild the tournament is) led a team of Patrons to run all the early competitions and oversee its integration into the Kenya Rugby Union's calendar. The trophy, a bronze of two elephants, is named in his memory.
The inaugural tournament took place in 1996, Public School Wanderers, who had supported Kenyan rugby for many years, brought a strong squad as did the Welsh Exiles (a team managed by the Welsh Rugby Union to nurture Wales qualified players living outside of the Principality) captained by future Welsh International captain, Colin Charvis. The tournament also included several international teams (Arabian Gulf, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe) as well as Selkirk RFC and a Cumbria Schoolboys team. The chairman of the referees was the famous English referee Ed Morrison and he took charge of the final between the Public School Wanderers and Zimbabwe. Chester Williams was there as guest of honor and to present the trophies to the winners which included Kenya (who beat Uganda 38-12 in the Plate final) and Cumbria Schoolboys who defeated Shujaa 29-10 in the Bowl Final.
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