Kenya Prisons Service’ women's volleyball team is struggling to pay bills for meals and accommodation at the Al-Albilla Hotel in Cairo, Egypt.
The team is participating in the ongoing Women's Africa Club Volleyball Championship.
According to reports by The Nation, 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.
Moreso, 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.
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.
Earlier in the month, president Uhuru Kenyatta announced that his government had put in place a fund (Sports Fund), which would sponsor all the national teams.
The President noted that the athletes represented the nation in international sporting events and therefore needed to be accorded full support in order to be successful.
