Not even an impressive set of results at the just concluded Amputee Football World Cup in Mexico seems enough to endear the national amputee team to the powers that be.
By 8pm last evening, the team was stranded at the Ministry of Sports headquarters, located on the second floor of Kencom House building at Nairobi’s Central Business District.
The squad of 15 players and four officials was awaiting payment of their allowances totalling Sh2 million from the government. However, neither Sports CS Rashid Echesa nor his PS Kirimi Kaberia or any official from the Ministry for that matter was there to address their concerns.
MINISTRY’S BOARDROOM
When Nation Sport visited the team at the Ministry’s boardroom at about 7:30pm, the players, who are physically challenged were lying on the floor – helpless.
Most of them had not eaten anything since arriving in the country from Guadalajara, Mexico City, in a trip punctuated by a 21-hour delay owing to a mix up in the booking of flights by the government.
“Having achieved position 12 in the world – and second position in Africa and having come in the morning – the reception was bad because we were not allowed to access the Ministry of Sports headquarters.
“When we were in Mexico we were representing the whole country and singing the national anthem,” said a pained team captain Dalmas Otieno.
Angola won the championship after edging our Turkey 5-4 on post-match penalties to lift the title.
Kenya finished in 12th position out of the 24 participating nations.
Kenya lost 4-1 to Turkey, 4-1 to Russia, before beating USA and Japan by the same 2-1 score line.