Cash crunch threatens Kenya's All Africa Games participation

A cash crunch at the ministry of sports is threatening to knock-out a number of teams set to take part in next month’s All-Africa games in Ghana, we can exclusively report.

Malkia Strikers, Wafalme and Kenya Morans are some of the teams that could be locked out of the games due to budgetary constraints.

According to a source in the ministry, the Kenya National Sports Council (KNSC) has been asked to drastically reduce the budget for the games and only cater for a small number of teams.

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The budget for the games which will run from March 5-23 had earlier been set at Ksh 250 million but has been reduced to Ksh 150 million hence the need to reduce the travelling contingent.

“We are facing budgetary constraints and we are looking at taking just a small number of teams to Ghana.One of the criteria we are looking at is to support those teams that have not qualified for the Olympic games. Malkia Strikers as well as Shujaa have already qualified for the Paris games. We want them to give others a chance especially considering the budgetary constraints,” said our source.

The source revealed that a final decision on who travels will be made next week after top ministry officials return to the office from a cabinet retreat.

Early this week, Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) named both the Malkia and Wafalme provisional squads to begin preparations for the African games.

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The teams have started training at the Nyayo National Stadium. On January 25, Kenya Morans coach Louis Khisia revealed that he was looking to use the All Africa games to get high intensity matches for the team and also to identify players who can be promoted to the Shujaa team.