Sharp focus has turned on President Kenyatta after reports emerged Kenya’s Prisons women volleyball team are stranded, starved and frustrated in Egypt.
Only weeks ago, President Kenyatta said the country’s sportsmen and women would never again face challenges as they represent the Kenya in international tournaments.
According to reliable sources in Egypt, Kenya Prisons Service’ women’s volleyball team is struggling to pay bills for meals and accommodation at the Al-Albilla Hotel in Cairo, Egypt.
Women’s Africa Club Volleyball Championship
The team is participating in the ongoing Women’s Africa Club Volleyball Championship.
According to reports by a local daily, the passports of the entire contingent comprising of twelve players, two technical bench members and an administrator have been seized by the hotel’s management rendering them virtually prisoners.
The five-time African champions who are bankrolled by the Ministry of Interior under the Kenya Prisons Service docket initially deposited Ksh 300,000 against the expected Ksh1.1 million.
Unpaid allowances
More-so, the team’s players, and the technical bench are yet to receive their allowances for competing in this tournament.
The team’s morale in the camp is said to have taken a dip even further after it emerged that the relevant ministry officials are either unwilling or unable to make these payments.
Withdraw from tournament
By the time of publishing this article, both Kenya Prisons Service’s Sports Department head Rose Moturi and Department for Correctional Services Principal Secretary Zainabu Hussein could not be reached for comment.
There have been suggestions to withdraw the team from the tournament but it’s believed that the repercussions could be too grave to contemplate.
These include hefty fines by the tournament organizers and other sanctions including a five-year ban.
Prisons, who last triumphed in this tournament in Madagascar in 2014, have already qualified for the quarter-finals with one game to spare, after winning in two of its three group matches.
Team slept outside Kencom plaza
In his speech during the Beyond Zero marathon in March, 11, President Kenyatta exuded confidence that a sports fund is set to be fully operational and will allow Kenyan teams to fully concentrate on minting out results. Previously the government has been on the spot for poor facilitation of Kenyan teams.
Claims which were laid bare in October last year when the Kenyan Amputee Football team slept outside Sports Ministry offices at Kencom Plaza, Nairobi with the hope that it would be facilitated in order to participate in the Amputee World Cup in San Juan, Mexico.
Eventually, air tickets were provided but that was it. They went to participate in an international tournament without official kits and played their first game hours after touching down in Mexico since the air tickets were provided to them very late.