Kepler University: Rising Stars in Rwandan Sports

Kepler is a name that continues to rise in popularity and reputation in Rwandan sports, particularly in team sports.

If you are a sports enthusiast, the name Kepler is not new to you, especially in basketball and volleyball, as in just one year of participating in competitions, it has started to win trophies.

This popularity even reaches the university’s leader, Munyampenda Nathalie, and recently, some have nominated her for prominent positions in Rwandan sports.

In an interview, Munyampenda Nathalie discussed various topics, including the major projects of the school and her thoughts on taking on significant roles in Rwandan sports.

She stated, "We have a vision to help Rwandan children with talents in sports to learn. The foundation is to have teams because those children come to learn and also play.

Our teams consist of student players and a few non-student players who play as professionals. We are not here just to support others; we are competing and winning as well.

Our basketball team in the Second Division (Keplerians) consists entirely of students, and we draw strong players to move to the First Division.

In the girls’ team, most of them are students, with only one or two not studying, but they will continue to the Third Year of University.

There are others studying outside Kepler, such as at the University of Rwanda and IPRC Kigali.

She explained the goals they started with this year.

She said, "Our goal in the first year was for all teams to reach the National Games. However, our Second Division team was promoted to the First Division (Basketball). We achieved all of that.

In volleyball, we lost in the last minute; we wanted to lift the Championship Trophy, but we did win the Liberation and Memorial Kayumba trophies.

We achieved what we aimed for. In our first year, we wanted to experiment, learn how contracts are made, and build teams capable of developing young talent, which is what we desire most.