The Ministry of Sports has finally spoken out on what led to the mix-up during a trip by National Football team, Harambee Stars to Cape Verde for Tuesday's World Cup qualifiers.
Sports Principal Secretary, Richard Ekai blamed the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) for the whole fiasco, which eventually led to the defeat of the Stars in the return leg match against Cape Verde's Blue Sharks.
Ekai revealed that the Ministry had sent Sh17.2 Million to FKF on Friday, 13th of November, to cater for various expenses including the air tickets to Cape Verde.
PS Ekai stated that he was surprised when the Harambee Stars did not travel on November 14 as previously scheduled, adding that the FKF President, Sam Nyamweya showed up in his office demanding for more money to charter an aircraft.
“I was in a meeting the whole of Monday morning and when I got to my office, I found him (Nyamweya) waiting for me together with a representative from Skyward Express, who are the owners of the plane that was supposed to take them to Cape Verde. They wanted the Government to give another Sh9.2 Million although this was not in our budget. But since it was a crisis, we had to look for the money,” Ekai was quoted by The Standard.
Ekai further mentioned that Skyward Express wanted to be paid in full so as to release their plane, a demand that led to the delay of the trip.
However, Nyamweya countered the Ministry's explanation citing that: “It is true that the Ministry released Sh17.2 Million to the federation, but what they are not saying is that the money went to their Central Bank account first before we could access it on Monday morning. That is why the chartering option was the best but the Ministry had to add us more money to be able to do this.”
“We had secured two separate bookings, one on Air Mauritius and Kenya Airways that was to take the team to Amsterdam and to Praia. However, we had time limits to pay. When we did not pay within the agreed time lines, the tickets were cancelled,” Nyamweya stated.
The Stars were on Tuesday night eliminated from the 2018 World Cup campaign after suffering a 2-0 defeat in the hands of Cape Verde. The team did not have adequate time to prepare for the match due to the confusion in their travel arrangements, that led to a late arrival in the host country.
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