Five time Africa Volleyball women club champions Prison Kenya ended their Egypt journey in bad moods with the Kenyan government through the ministry of Interior and Coordination.
After losing out to proceed in the pool stage, the troubled Kenya Prisons was forced to withdraw from the Championship.
The ministry of interior sent out a memo on Thursday instructed the Kenyan Embassy in Cairo to clear the team’s pending bills and thereafter book the Kenyan Volleyball Federation women’s league champions on the next available flight back home.
“Someone has come here and introduced himself as an employee of the Kenyan Embassy. He is clearing the bills and checking us out of the hotel. We were supposed to train (for our next match) between 1-2pm (Egypt time) but that will not happen,” said Prisons team manager David Kilundo while talking to Daily Nation.
The ministry said that they were not aware of the team’s travel to the north Africa country but the team mate with country’s ambassador Jeff Otieno.
Coach Josep Baraza’s charges were however programmed to face DR Congo’s DGSP in a classification match aimed at determining which positions between 9 and 17 the clubs finish in.
The wardresses won against Cote d’Ivoire’s ASEC 3-0(25-12,25-13,25-9) and Uganda’s Nkumba University 3-1(24-26,27-25,25-16,25-22), but then lost 3-1(25-15,14-25,25-23,25-22) to Algeria Petroliers and again 3-1(25-18,25-20,22-25,25-21) to Egypt’s El Shams, thus failing to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in 15 years.
Still, Prisons’ withdrawal from this competition could spell trouble with the tournament organisers likely to heavily fine the team or even hand them a lengthy ban altogether.
Earlier, the team’s departure for Egypt to compete in this tournament was delayed for more than three days owing to a lack of funds.
The players are also owed allowances for participating in the tournament, reportedly amounting to around Sh2.7 million. ���)G=�