The Kenya Rugby Union have so far received seven applications for the position of head coach of the Kenya Sevens team.
Of the seven three are foreign nationals with two from South Africa and one from Canada.
However, interest is centred on current coach Benjamin Ayimba, his assistant Paul Murunga, and former coaches Mitch Ocholla and Charles Cadovillis.
Speaking yesterday, KRU director of squads Oscar Mango said he expected more applications before today's deadline.
“I still think we will get more people applying for the job. Its a very competitive one and offers a good salary. After seeing what Kenya Sevens did at the last World Series and winning in Singapore, we expect the numbers to increase,” Mango added.
Former New Zealand Sevens legendary coach Gordon Tietjens expressed interest in the job last week but wanted to come in as consultant as opposed to a full time coaching. He has coached the All Blacks Sevens outfit for 22 years winning four Commonwealth gold medals and 12 world series titles.
Englishman Ben Ryan, who guided Fiji to the Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last month and two successive world series titles, is out of the running for the job as he had indicated he wants to move on to the longer version of the game either in England or South Africa.
Mango said the board is keen to recruit a a coach who can set up a high performance training centre and culture.
"We are looking at having a high performance training centre and a candidate who can inculcate the values and bring out the best in the team as well as build up for future generations of Sevens players,” added Mango.
Mango said they will conduct interviews next week and will announce the new coach by the second week of October. He said they wanted to give the incoming coach ample time to prepare the squad for the 2016-2017 World Series as the opening tournament is in Dubai in December.
"Time is off the essence so we want to complete the process in good time to give the coach six to eight weeks to prepare the team for the opening two tournaments in Dubai and Cape Town.
Elsewhere Kenya Simbas assistant coach Dominique Habimana has rejoined Kenya Harlequins' technical bench ahead of the 2016/2017 Kenya Cup season.
Habimana joins as technical director where he will work with head coach Joel Ng'ang'a under director of rugby Charles Cardovillis.
Habimana left Nakuru at the completion of the Kenya Cup season.