VOLLEYBALL is one of the most successful sports in Rwanda.  Not long ago, Rwanda senior men’s national team beat Uganda, Kenya and Burundi to win the FIVB Africa Zone Five championship and consequently qualified for both CAVB Africa Cup of Nations and All Africa Games.

Paul Bitok, a Kenyan-born tactician is the man behind the success of the game. Bitok is the coach of all the national volley ball teams.

Who is Bitok?

Born on May 5, 1974 in Eldoret, Kenya to Busienei Kibitok and Sarah Busienei, Bitok is the last born from a family of ten, five boys and five girls. He also has a step-mother with nine children, five girls and four boys to make it a family of nineteen siblings.

He is married to Engineer Jenifer Jeragat Bitok with whom they have three kids (two girls and one son).

He attended Davis primary school before joining Kapsabet boy’s secondary school where he completed A’ level. He later enrolled at Semmelweis University in Hungary where he graduated with a diploma in sports sciences in 2008.

Early days

 "As a child I used to play any game including football, volleyball and athletics but just for fan. Because of my height, basketball coaches started advising me to take up the sport but my home village didn’t have facilities. Volleyball turned out to be my best option,” Bitok told Saturday Sport in an interview.

Bitok says he did not take long to embrace volleyball; he started playing it when he went to secondary school where he featured for the school team before storming the national volleyball league at the age of 19.

Playing career

The 41-year-old Bitok had an 11-year professional playing career. He featured for four different clubs, two in Kenya and two abroad. He also featured for the Kenya senior national team from 1993 till his retirement in 2004.

Between 1993 and 1996, he played for former Kenyan league giants Posta and the defunct Telecomm volleyball club. He helped the side to win three league titles before heading to Tunisia’s Rades Sportive du Saher, playing for the North African side from 1997 to 2000.

Playing as a left-attacker, Bitok also featured for Croat side Zagreb Club from 2000 to late 2003 but unfortunately he never won anything with either Rades Sportive or Zagreb club.

From 1997 to 2003, when in Kenya during vacation, he used to play for Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) volleyball club and helped the club to win five league titles from 1998-2002 back-to-back.

He played for the Kenya national team for 11 years (1993-2004) and captained the team for seven years (1997-2004) but he never led the national team to any silverware.

"We never won anything notable, the best we did was finishing fourth at the 1999 All Africa Games in Johannesburg, South Africa behind Egypt, Cameroun and Algeria respectively,” he recalls with a bit of disappointment.

Coaching career

After retiring from playing, Bitok attended various coaching clinics and few months later he was named KCB women’s head coach towards the end 2004. He currently holds an international coaching license level II.

After winning the league title with the women’s team, he was appointed head coach of KCB men’s team in 2005 and led the club to third place at the CAVB Africa Club Championship in Nairobi.

In the same year, he was appointed assistant coach of Kenya national women’s team.

He won the CAVB Africa Cup of Nations title with the team in 2006 in Abuja, Nigeria.

He also helped the team to finish top in qualifiers of the 2007 FIVB Women’s World Championship in Japan and as head coach he won the girls’ Junior Africa Championship in 2008 and led the team at World championship in Mexico (2009) but finished in a disappointing 20th position.

Among milestones at club level, Bitok led the Men’s KBC team to league title and East and Central Africa Championship crown in 2008 and two years earlier (2006), he had led the side to win the title of Africa Club Championship in Mauritius.

In 2008, he was named head coach of Kenya’s senior women’s team but achieved nothing much before signing for APR women’s volleyball club in 2009. He led the military side to finish 5th in the 2009 Africa Club Championship in Nairobi, Kenya.

Career with Rwanda national teams

In 2010, the former Kenya international was appointed head coach of Rwanda Men’s senior team but also handled the rest of national teams at different levels in different regional and international competitions.

He led the national women’s youth team to a 4th position in African Championships in Cairo, Egypt in 2011 and also finished 4th with the girls’ junior team in continental show in Tunisia the same year.

In 2011, he beat his home country’s (Kenya) team with Rwanda Men’s senior team to win the CAVB Africa Zone Five championships in Kigali and qualified for the 2011 All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique where Rwanda finished fourth.

Among so many other successes with Rwandan national teams, he led the men’s junior team to finish third in Africa to qualify for the 2013 FIVB World Championships in Turkey where they finished in the 20th position.

He also coached the girls’ youth team to finish third in the 2014 Africa Youth Olympic Games in Botswana.

Bitok guided the national youth girls’ team to finish top in qualifiers of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Ghana but failed to impress at the eventual Olympic Games in Nanjing, China to finish in a disappointing 25th spot.

Since he was appointed head coach of Rwanda senior national team in 2010, Bitok has led the Rwandan team to the three consecutive wins against his country of birth (Kenya). He first beat his home country in 2011 in All Africa qualifiers and in 2013 in the World Championships qualifiers.

The third occasion came last May when Rwanda beat Kenya in five sets (3-2) to qualify for this year’s All Africa Games and CAVB Africa Championships to be staged in Mozambique in September and Egypt in July respectively.

A word from fellow coaches

Sammy Mulinge Mutemi, the APR volleyball club head coach and a fellow Kenyan; believes replacing Bitok will be a tough task.

"Bitok has achieved a lot with Rwanda; you can see a very big difference between Rwanda under his tenure and days before.”

What do players say about him?

"He is a good man with a big heart and intense passion for volleyball; he is dedicated and highly professional. He is also strict. He has done a lot for Rwandan volleyball,” national team star player, Pierre Marshal Kwizera, said of his coach.

Paul Bitok Academy

Back in Kenya, Bitok has a sports (volleyball and athletics) academy established in 2012 Early this year, a primary school named after him opened shop.

He is also the brain behind the annual Paul Bitok volleyball tournament with an annual funding of 3,000,000 Kenya Shillings (about Rwf 21.3 million) by Amaco insurance company.

Way forward

After beating Kenya to qualify for Africa Championships and All Africa Games, his focus in to impress at the 11th All Africa Games in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

However, Rwanda is yet to confirm participation in the forthcoming African Championships and Bitok insists the tournament would be crucial as the continental meet would strengthen the team in terms of preparedness of the All Africa Games.

His current contract with Rwanda ends in February 2016 and he is willing to extend it. When he retires from coaching, Bitom says his next challenge is going into sports administration in Kenya.