Champions Upperhill headline Pool A alongside Lenana School, Alliance High, Muhuri Muchiri and Strathmore School as they begin their Prescott Cup defence on Saturday.
Pool B features Rift Valley Academy, the runners-up in the last two years, Nairobi School, Mangu High, Blackrock Impala Floodlit champions Ofafa Jericho and the promoted Dagoretti High.
Upper Hill, unbeaten since 2015, open their campaign at Lenana School. Muhuri Muchiri will be up against Alliance as Ofafa start it off against Nairobi School. Being odd groups, Dagoretti and Strathmore will wait till weekend 'two' to start their title charge.
Upperhill, who bagged the national secondary schools' sevens title in Mombasa last month will be keen to extend their dominance in the prestigious competition. Coach Timothy Walgwe remains optimistic about his side's chances.
"We are in a good position and our training and pre-season have been good and we hope to retain the trophy," said Walgwe.
This year, the competition will feature four festivals between May 11 and June 8 with Nairobi School, Alliance and Rift Valley Academy (RVA) set to be other hosts. There will be one mid-week matchday where home teams will be the hosts.
Elsewhere, Northern Suburbs Cubs and Eldoret RFC have been promoted to the KRU Championship after winning Nationwide semis on Saturday.
Suburbs beat Moi Arsonists 15-16 while Eldoret saw off Maseno University 39-8 at Maseno school. The two will play in the KRU Championship in the 2019/20 season. Before that, they will contest in the Nationwide final. They replace Kitale RFC and Ngong RFC who were relegated to the Nationwide.
