Shujaa began the Paris Olympics campaign with a 31-12 defeat to World Seven Series champions Argentina at the Stade de France on Wednesday.
Kevin Wambua's charges began the match superbly with Chrisant Ojwang showing the South Americans a clean pair of heels to touch down and Tony Onyango converting for a 7-0 lead.
The Argentines looked rattled by the strong physical play by the Kenyans but recovered their mojo when German Schulz touched down with Gaston Revol missing the conversion as Shujaa led 7-5 at the break.
On resumption, the Tokyo bronze medallists stepped up a gear with Augustin Fraga dotting down with Revol converting for a 12-7 lead.
The Kenyans regrouped and fought gallantly as Ojwang went on a searing run and offloaded to Kevin Wekesa who touched down at the corner for an unconverted try to tie the match at 12-12.
Santiago Gomez Cora's men were not to be denied with Tomas Elizalde breaking through the Kenyan defence to score. Gaston Revol converted after winning the kickoff reception—a facet of play they dominated for the entirety of the game and led 19-12.
Kenya had a brief spell of possession with Brian Tanga and Nigel Amaitsa probing for gaps in the Argentine defence.
Against the run of play, Kenya lost the ball at the breakdown and Luciano Gonzalez barged over the line with Revol converting and sealing Kenya's fate with a 24-12 lead in the dying minute.
From the resultant kickoff, substitute Marcos Moneta showed the Kenyan defence a clean pair of heels to touch down at the corner and close out the scoring.
Shujaa were due to play Australia in their second preliminary match at 8 pm and conclude the preliminaries on Thursday at 3 pm against Samoa. The knockout matches will be played on Friday and Saturday.
The top two teams in each pool qualify for the quarterfinals with the two best third-placed sides joining them in the last eight of the competition. Thereafter the women's category will kick off on Sunday.
